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[Korey]

Flight was fully boarded. At the last moment, four non-working United flight attendants/pilots let the plane know that they needed to be on it to get to their destination. Note that the flight was not overbooked. United decides that these employees are more important than paying customers, so they offer $800 vouchers for volunteers to get off the plane. Nobody took the deal so they picked four passengers "at random" to force off the plane.

One of the passengers (69 year old doctor) refused to get up because he had patients waiting for him. United called in muscle to forcibly remove him from his seat and literally dragged him off the plane while he's screaming. During the altercation, his mouth hit the armrest and started bleeding.

United's initial response (later responses are further down this post): "Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation."

#dontflyunited



Videos

Right before incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_x4QVZFmM0

Incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nAZEk6nsNE

Individual videos
1. Main video: https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/status/851214160042106880
2. Another angle: https://twitter.com/JayseDavid/status/851224464088072193
3. Moments before the situation escalated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_x4QVZFmM0
4. He somehow was able to return, disoriented (update: he had a concussion at this point and doesn't remember anything after being dragged off): https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/status/851228695360663552
5. Chanting "I have to go home" with his mouth bleeding: https://twitter.com/kaylyn_davis/status/851471574385307648
6. Chanting "they'll kill me": https://twitter.com/kaylyn_davis/status/851480498186485760

News Articles

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/10/travel/passenger-removed-united-flight-trnd/index.html

http://www.courier-journal.com/stor...d-united-flight-chicago-louisville/100274374/

A video posted on Facebook late Sunday evening shows a passenger on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville being forcibly removed from the plane before takeoff at O'Hare International Airport.

The video, posted by Audra D. Bridges at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, is taken from an aisle seat on a commercial airplane that appears to be preparing to take flight. The 31-second clip shows three men wearing radio equipment and security jackets speaking with a man seated on the plane. After a few seconds, one of the men grabs the passenger, who screams, and drags him by his arms toward the front of the plane. The video ends before anything else is shown.

A United spokesperson confirmed in an email Sunday night that a passenger had been taken off a flight in Chicago.

"Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked," the spokesperson said. "After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.

"We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities."

Bridges, a Louisville resident, gave her account of the flight Sunday night.

Passengers were told at the gate that the flight was overbooked and United, offering $400 and a hotel stay, was looking for one volunteer to take another flight to Louisville at 3 p.m. Monday. Passengers were allowed to board the flight, Bridges said, and once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight. Passengers were told that the flight would not take off until the United crew had seats, Bridges said, and the offer was increased to $800, but no one volunteered.

Then, she said, a manager came aboard the plane and said a computer would select four people to be taken off the flight. One couple was selected first and left the airplane, she said, before the man in the video was confronted.

Bridges said the man became "very upset" and said that he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning. The manager told him that security would be called if he did not leave willingly, Bridges said, and the man said he was calling his lawyer. One security official came and spoke with him, and then another security officer came when he still refused. Then, she said, a third security official came on the plane and threw the passenger against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.

The man was able to get back on the plane after initially being taken off – his face was bloody and he seemed disoriented, Bridges said, and he ran to the back of the plane. Passengers asked to get off the plane as a medical crew came on to deal with the passenger, she said, and passengers were then told to go back to the gate so that officials could "tidy up" the plane before taking off.

Bridges said the man shown in the video was the only person who was forcibly removed.

"Everyone was shocked and appalled," Bridges said. "There were several children on the flight as well that were very upset."

The flight was delayed around two hours before it could fly to Louisville, and it arrived in Kentucky later Sunday night. No update was given to the passengers about the condition of the man forcibly removed, Bridges said.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3297228/doctor-dragged-off-united-airlines-flight-overbooked-video/




Photos

The CEO's shitty first "apology". Anderson Cooper: "That statement by the CEO has got to be among one of the worst statements I've heard from a CEO."

https://twitter.com/united/status/851471781827420160

At the same time, the two faced CEO sends an internal email to his employees shitting on the victim and "standing behind" the employees:

Amazes me how badly their PR is handling this incident.

This is the CEO's email to his employees:

Chicago Police Department is investigating, implies passenger was at fault:

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/851500160580550656

All the fellow passengers are on the victim's side and none have mentioned the victim causing a commotion. The passengers were yelling at the officers as they were dragging the guy out, and when the officers came back in all the passengers were berating them "you should be ashamed of yourself, you should be embarrassed to work for this company":
https://twitter.com/AC360/status/851600794239545345
https://www.facebook.com/cnn/videos/10156405885621509/

https://twitter.com/AP/status/851512878624628737

Updates

Mon 7:35pm:
Redditor gives eye witness account of doctor being violently removed from United plane

my comment reposted from a previously deleted thread:

I was on this flight and want to add a few things to give some extra context. This was extremely hard to watch and children were crying during and after the event.

When the manager came on the plane to start telling people to get off someone said they would take another flight (the next day at 2:55 in the afternoon) for $1600 and she laughed in their face.

The security part is accurate, but what you did not see is that after this initial incident they lost the man in the terminal. He ran back on to the plane covered in blood shaking and saying that he had to get home over and over. I wonder if he did not have a concussion at this point. They then kicked everybody off the plane to get him off a second time and clean the blood out of the plane. This took over an hour.

All in all the incident took about two and a half hours. The united employees who were on the plane to bump the gentleman were two hostesses and two pilots of some sort.

This was very poorly handled by United and I will definitely never be flying with them again.

Tues 12:48pm
Yet another "apology" from the CEO, probably in response to stocks dropping $600M.

News of stock market crash just made it to the CEO:

Wed 5:50pm

United won't use police to remove overbooked passengers - CEO

United Airlines will no longer use law enforcement officers to remove passengers from overbooked flights after global outrage erupted over a video showing a passenger dragged from one of its planes in Chicago.

"We're not going to put a law enforcement official... to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger," United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz told ABC News on Wednesday morning. "We can't do that."

Munoz said the incident on Sunday resulted from a "system failure" that prevented employees from using "common sense" in the situation and that Dr. David Dao, whom security officers pulled by his hands from the cabin before takeoff, was not at fault.

An online petition calling for Munoz to step down as CEO had more than 45,000 signatures on Wednesday morning, but he told ABC that he had no plans to resign over the incident.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ual-passenger-idUSKBN17E1GN

Wed 8:35pm
New video of the victim and officers talking to each other moments before the beatdown. The victim is refusing to get on the plane and is on the phone with his lawyer.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-united-video-doctor_us_58ee64a2e4b0cb574bb4ed45
https://m.liveleak.com/view?i=655_1492004707

Thurs 9:25am
Lawyer: Dao suffered "a significant concussion," lost two front teeth, has a broken nose, incurred injuries to his sinuses, and will be "undergoing reconstructive surgery in that regard."

Thurs 6:44pm
Video: Press conference with Dao's lawyers and daughter

Tues 4/25
Police reports released:
Police report says passenger fought with officers before he was pulled from United flight
Direct link to documents

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

United Airlines gave us this response:

”Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.

We apologize for the overbook situation."

Yes, the overbooking was the real problem here.

EDIT: I don't think United Airlines have fully grasped the concept of "volunteers" either.

 

[gofreak]

Absolutely shameful. United should be run out of business...boycott them.

 

[capitalCORN]

Market forces at work.

 

[RBH]

Fuck United Airlines

 

[Saya]

After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.”

volunteers... one costumer refused to leave voluntarily... WTF united...

 

[LilWayneSuckz]

Fuck United Airlines

.

 

[watershed]

This is a serious WTF moment. They were looking for volunteers to leave the plane. He didn't volunteer. So how does any of that lead to him being forced off the plane? He should sue.

 

[DavidDesu]

How in the hell..? How is that even possible. Force someone off their flight by officials. Are these airline officials or something higher than that? That's a fucking lawsuit and a half right there. I guess their terms and conditions are robust enough it might not go anywhere but on principle this is just rotten and should not be legal.

 

[Layell]

First United Breaks Guitars, is the next song going to be United Drags Docs?

 

[Seesaw15]

not a good look.

 

[DonMigs85]

I'm expecting a nice fat settlement for him. Even worse if he really did have patients waiting for him.

 

[Majine]

How do you possibly get to this point?

Fucking sue their asses.

 

[Robin64]

Firstly, wow, what cunts. I hope he sues their arses and wins a nice fat settlement.

But secondly, how do you overbook these days? Doesn't a computer know how many seats are on a plane?

 

[mAcOdIn]

volunteers... one costumer refused to leave voluntarily... WTF united...

They asked for volunteers first, then they claim they had the computer randomly pick for people to be "kicked off," more or less and he was one of the four. Basically no-one volunteered so the airline picked four people to kick off.

 

[Zero2kz]

Firstly, wow, what cunts. I hope he sues their arses and wins a nice fat settlement.

But secondly, how do you overbook these days? Doesn't a computer know how many seats are on a plane?

They do it on purpose to maximize profits if people cancel or don't show up for their flight.

 

[SJRB]

"Computer says NO"


I'm sure lawyers are already piling up at his doorstep, what a goldmine.

 

[Dirca]

Firstly, wow, what cunts. I hope he sues their arses and wins a nice fat settlement.

But secondly, how do you overbook these days? Doesn't a computer know how many seats are on a plane?

Overbooking is done on purpose

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Firstly, wow, what cunts. I hope he sues their arses and wins a nice fat settlement.

But secondly, how do you overbook these days? Doesn't a computer know how many seats are on a plane?

They do it deliberately expecting a certain number of no shows in order to try and minimise unused seats.

 

[Matt]

They do it deliberately expecting a certain number of no shows in order to try and minimise unused seats.

And, to be fair, it usually works out fine.

But when it doesn't...

 

[Robin64]

They do it on purpose to maximize profits if people cancel or don't show up for their flight.

Overbooking is done on purpose

They do it deliberately expecting a certain number of no shows in order to try and minimise unused seats.

Makes sense, I guess. The next step, though, is to have better solutions to problems like this when people don't cancel or fail to show up.

 

[the1npc]

They do it deliberately expecting a certain number of no shows in order to try and minimise unused seats.

Wow flying is expensive not something I can afford and even if I save up my booked seat could be gone lol wow

 

[FLAguy954]

Fuck United Airlines

.

 

[Dali]

The plane wasn't leaving because it was overbooked. That it's allowed for airlines to do it is some bullshit, but people were gonna be removed from the plane until the problem was solved.

At first I was like "grown ass man throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old?" but then I was like "I guess if government regulations allow this then may as well make United pay dearly for doing it." No one would have batted an eyelid and United wouldn't be getting this negative publicity if he just said "shucks, me and my bad luck" and walked off.

Still kinda hard to see myself doing that but I guess his business was very important.

 

[Transhuman]

And, to be fair, it usually works out fine.

But when it doesn't...

 

[kmag]

Never understood how the US airlines get away with 'selling' you a seat you might not have. When I was on honeymoon flying from San Francisco to Maui, I was informed that I was put on 'standby' while my wife was not. Fortunately they managed to get us both on the same flight but the whole concept is bizarre especially as someone coming from the EU.

 

[adamsapple]

I hope United pays through their nose and asses for this bullshit.

 

[red731]

Fuck everything.

 

[King_Moc]

They asked for volunteers first, then they claim they had the computer randomly pick for people to be "kicked off," more or less and he was one of the four. Basically no-one volunteered so the airline picked four people to kick off.

That much is obvious. It's the wording that's the problem. They clearly don't understand the meaning of the word 'volunteer'.

 

[jercruz]

Scary.

Pretty sure this will be a 'learning lesson for them' excuse and quietly brushed aside.

They should quit with the 'volunteer' part, and just say they're going to pick passengers to go away otherwise they'll be man-handled.

 

[Y2Kev]

I don't understand why the amount of the incentive doesn't just keep going up. No takers at 800? How about $2,000 dollars worth of airline miles. No one at $2,000? $2,500. Eventually SOMEONE will take it.

 

[gofreak]

The plane wasn't leaving because it was overbooked. That it's allowed for airlines to do it is some bullshit, but people were gonna be removed from the plane until the problem was solved.

At first I was like "grown ass man throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old?" but then I was like "I guess if government regulations allow this then may as well make United pay dearly for doing it." No one would have batted an eyelid and United wouldn't be getting this negative publicity if he just said "shucks, me and my bad luck" and walked off.

Or if United realised it was their fault, prioritised their customers over their employees and let him stay in the first place over their employees. That might have fixed things too.

He did apparently get back on the plane also, so obviously there were other solutions beyond him giving up his seat.

In any event - why were they picking on him? Why not put it to the whole group that X people needed to give up their seats and the plane couldn't move until then? Why focus the obligation on one person? So their employees could sit together? A joke.

 

[Majine]

I don't understand why the amount of the incentive doesn't just keep going up. No takers at 800? How about $2,000 dollars worth of airline miles. No one at $2,000? $2,500. Eventually SOMEONE will take it.

If overbooking is part of their practice, they can't just keep going up all the time.

800 per flight is the allocated amount, I guess.

 

[mAcOdIn]

He did act like a baby but honestly why does anyone need to be removed from the plane, couldn't the four passengers that hadn't boarded yet be the four that were forced to change? That's what I find silly. Shit should be first come first serve. If you gotta return employees back for their return trips or whatever that should already be factored in too.

 

[EloKa]

He did act like a baby

... what?

 

[Auto-Reply]

Never understood how the US airlines get away with 'selling' you a seat you might not have. When I was on honeymoon flying from San Francisco to Maui, I was informed that I was put on 'standby' while my wife was not. Fortunately they managed to get us both on the same flight but the whole concept is bizarre especially as someone coming from the EU.

The F?

That can't be real? You can get bought out of your seat on a plane, even if you already have bought the ticket?

Edit: By the flight company I guess? And when you refuse they just remove you by force?

 

[sirap]

Glad they got this shit on camera. Fuck United Airlines.

 

[mAcOdIn]

That much is obvious. It's the wording that's the problem. They clearly don't understand the meaning of the word 'volunteer'.

No they totally understand, they asked for volunteers and didn't get any so they escalated it to mandatory. Like if someone at work calls in sick and they ask for volunteers to cover the shift, if no-one volunteers is it left at that?

 

[ClosingADoor]

So, they asked for volunteers, nobody wanted to leave. Then they picked 4 random seats. Guy refused to leave and cooperate with security. They want to force him, he hits his face when falling down.

Situation was handled badly, but I also get why they needed him to leave. You can't just have people refuse in a plane, otherwise everybody would just go "fuck off" when it happens to them.

 

[BriGuy]

Shouldn't they have incrementally raised their offer until they got enough volunteers? I mean, maybe $800 wasn't enough for the inconvenience, but I'm sure some folks would start to crack after it got north of $1000. At any rate, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than the PR disaster and lawsuit that's going to result from this.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

The situation is fucked up for typical overbookings but

four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees

the flight's not actually overbooked by passengers? they want to remove people from a flight for their employees? employees that aren't even supposed to be on the goddamn flight??? holy shit.

 

[Skellig Gra]

A really shitty situation. I've never seen no one take the money. Not sure what this guys end game was after security was called.

The situation is fucked up for typical overbookings but



the flight's not actually overbooked by passengers? they want to remove people from a flight for their employees? employees that aren't even supposed to by on the goddamn flight??? holy shit.

If I had to guess I'd say another flight was depending on them so take off 4 so hundreds more can go.

 

[capitalCORN]

No they totally understand, they asked for volunteers and didn't get any so they escalated it to mandatory. Like if someone at work calls in sick and they ask for volunteers to cover the shift, if no-one volunteers is it left at that?

If your workplace collapses due to one missing person, maybe reconsider your structure?

 

[itsbenoclock]

What the hell is with flying in America? Seems like everyone's a second-class citizen to the companies...flying isn't perfect in Europe but hey at least we're afforded basic respect.

 

[BocoDragon]

At first I was like "grown ass man throwing a tantrum like a 2 year old?" [...]

Still kinda hard to see myself doing that [...]

He did act like a baby

I know you're just setting up your argument, but personally, I'm not interested in condemning this man for a second.

He knows from the "random volunteer" setup that there's no reason why he in particular needs to be taken off the plane. If his reasons for going somewhere on a plane are serious (which they usually are unless you're Trump going to Mar-a-lago for the weekend), then I think A LOT of us would be like "fuck you, I know you can choose someone else. My travel is important".

This is NOT the man's fault. This is a diseased set of policies that were pushed so far to the limit that they antagonized a customer to the point that they used force on him.

I'd think this would call for policy changes. Manhandling your customers looks disgusting. Imagine if you went to McDonald's and their lack of food meant 4 customers had to be forcefully dragged out of the restaurant. BAD look.

 

[CTLance]

The US is a scary place. Abusing a passenger that refuses to "voluntarily" leave a flight he paid for just because they couldn't get their own freaking personnel to the right place on time is just... so many levels of awful.

Really boggles the mind.

Especially the "voluntary" part. What's next? Not enough fuel, so a random bunch of "volunteers" gets to leave their baggage at the airport, to be delivered by catapult?

 

[MThanded]

So, they asked for volunteers, nobody wanted to leave. Then they picked 4 random seats. Guy refused to leave and cooperate with security. They want to force him, he hits his face when falling down.

Situation was handled badly, but I also get why they needed him to leave. You can't just have people refuse in a plane, otherwise everybody would just go "fuck off" when it happens to them.

He paid for a damn seat and a specified flight time. This thread is confusing me.

ALL of this is on United.

Picking people at random is BS. Some people don't have the luxury of taking a later flight due to scheduling or importance of an event.

 

[Doomshroom]

What is this bullshit? people are ding with the airline? It was thier own employees who needed the seats.

You know what! fuck them if they overbook they cant expect anyone to leave unless they pay them enough to give up their seat.

 

[Majine]

In the land of the lawsuit, I'm surprised this is a viable practice.

Even if far from every situation escalates to this point, somehow it must still add up.

 

[Ambient80]

Yes, the overbooking was the real problem here.

EDIT: I don't think United Airlines have fully grasped the concept of "volunteers" either.