Video shows United Airlines kicking a deaf woman off of a flight for offending an off-duty employee.
A United Airlines first class passenger and his hearing impaired wife were booted from their flight after a conflict with an off duty crewmember. Video from the cabin shows the man in his seat, upset but controlled, explaining that the employee snapped at his wife because she “didn’t hear” and “wasn’t listening.” He says he tried to explain the disability; the employee got ruder rather than apologizing, and then they sat down.
The airline appears to be kicking them off the flight because he used “foul language” toward the employee, which he repeatedly denies. At least one other passenger appears willing to record and support him, and the cabin is offered up as witnesses, and he wants to hear the decision of their removal directly from the captain.
We don’t actually see the interaction between the employee and the man’s wife on video and it doesn’t show the aftermath – whether the passengers were rebooked or got banned.
She’s not hearing or hearing you. She was rude to her. So when we got on the plane, I tried explaining to her that my wife cannot hear properly. So instead of saying, I’m sorry, which has happened before many times with her condition, she just began to get ruder and snapping back at me. And then we came here and sat down.
So me and, again, my disabled wife should not have to leave this plane. And just so you know, I’m getting sure this will be filmed. So if you’re willing to deal with that as well, that’s all about you. So what you’re talking about is removing somebody who is hearing impaired from a flight because one of your employees who’s not even on your crew right now was rude…
Does that sound okay with anybody? My disabled wife. They’re asking the cops to get off the plane. …Where’s the captain? I want the captain to tell me to my face. He understands the situation and that he’s okay with asking us to leave. That’s all. I want to make sure. But again, what did we do? What did we do? What did we do? Then you’re asking us to get off the plane. No, no, no. I’m asking what we did. What we did? What did we do?…
I didn’t use foul language. I didn’t use foul language.
man and wife are asked to leave the plane
byu/Lazy-School-7580 inPublicFreakout
Paddle Your Own Kanoo offers the theory that the man walked back to the off-duty flight attendant’s seat after boarding and demanded an apology, triggering the decision to remove him and his wife.
Most observers seem to fall into these camps:
- The wife is hearing impaired, and her disability was misread as rudeness. This happens constantly in noisy environments like planes.
- He’s calm and the crew is escalating without articulating a concrete reason. People read his composure as evidence the airline is overreacting.
- Once you’re told to deplane, you’re done. Practically this is true, whether it’s fair or not. Any review of the situation will have to come ater the fact, and video evidence is useful.
- United has a lot of baggage on passenger removal. It’s amazing to me that nearly nine years later David Dao being dragged off a flight and bloodied still comes up in this context, but that was such a worldwide phenomenon that it’s ingrained. The airline has not escaped it in the intervening years.
More than one person notes that there’s something ironic about a deaf woman being ejected from a plane over hearsay. Ultimately, though:
- Airlines have broad discretion to refuse transport when they decide someone “is, or might be, inimical to safety” under 49 U.S.C. § 44902(b) and the captain’s discretion is virtually unreviewable, given tht they’re presumed reasonable based on the facts available to them at the time.
- However, an airline may not discriminate against an “otherwise qualified individual” on disability grounds under 49 U.S.C. § 41705. So the relevant question after the fact is whether this was a safety and operational judgment about passenger conduct (harassment, confrontation, profanity), or whether the described conduct was pretext for a disability-linked issue?
As the passenger what I would have done is insisted on speaking with United’s Complaints Resolution Official, who is required to be available to mediate disability-related issues. That forces adjudication of the disability rights process with required documentation.
Under the Air Carrier Access Act, airlines have to designate and make available an official to handle complaints alleging disability-related violations. They’re callable when a passenger asserts a violation of disability rights such as a failure to accommodate a disability or discrimination because of the disability. They can be available by phone but they are supposed to be made available.
Here, an off duty United employee was likely given extra weight in their complaint because they weren’t just being treated as a random passenger. That’s unfortunate, it’s reality, but it’s also what the Complaint Resolution Official is for. They’d need to take witness input in the matter as well.
Last year I reported on a United flight attendant having security remove a disabled first class passenger and this isn’t the first time a United pilot has grounded a passenger over foul language.
This is Dr. David Dao, redux.
Oh look, another deputized Flight Attendant on a power trip.
Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit loading…..
Settlement in six or seven figures?
the so called deaf woman hears just fine when they are about to get kicked off. The guy was a total jackass. Demanding an apology is a poor reason to feel he is entitled and wanting to prove it to everyone around him. they kick people off so that they won’t be a problem in the air. if you are a first class passenger, then stay in first, don’t walk back to confront someone which only further slows the boarding process.
Watch the video, she is able to hear well enough to argue with the FA.
United’s David Dao 2.0. Exhibit #1 in why I will never ever fly them. These people are truly disturbing, my hope is that the couple secure sensational Legal Counsel and sue United for $ millions.
“We don’t have the before or the after” and this other blog has a “theory”… top notch reporting, fellas! Whatever promotes the most outrage wins! Facts be damned! USA! USA! USA!
@mark johnson: You state that “The guy was a total jackass”, whereas I would suggest that term would more closely apply to yourself. You have no idea of how hearing impairment works, it’s a complex disorder (which I regrettably have as well), which is entirely context dependent. Hearing well enough to process directed speech is entirely different than hearing voices in your vicinity. Standing vs Sitting matters as well. You would be wise to avoid attacking the disabled.
@TexasTJ — If it is Dr. Dao 2.0, then, time for United to pay-up! #UA3411 #NeverForget
Three letters: ADA
KA-Ching!!!! And I hope it’s a lot.
That’s just considered a cost of doing business. If you really want to get their attention, start suspending operating permits.
Random thoughts on this: 1) The employee was OFF-DUTY, so he should just STFU and mind his own business — he’s not working the flight, and no one ever listens to the safety announcement/video anyway. 2) What is it about. “my wife is hearing impaired” that would cause the off-duty employee to become ruder rather than say “Ooops” and apologize. 3) The Captain should have, once he or she found out the woman was hearing impaired, should have apologized and had them return to their seats; if anyone deserved to be “de-planed,” it was the off-duty employee — but that would have started one heck of a fight with the union (or the ALPA, or upper management or…). 4) You would think that, after the David Dao incident,* United would have an enhanced sensitivity to ordering people off their planes, but instead (anecdotally) UA throws more people off their planes than any other US carrier. And finally, 5) it’s 2026, WTF constitutes “foul language” anyway when you have a President who flips people off?
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* @Gary —>. David Dao will never go way. He is United’s version of Rodney King, complete with a bloody face, bumps and bruises. You don’t easily forget an image like that.
The off duty employee should be fired or at least suspended pending an investigation of the event. As @Jason said- STFU and stay in your lane,, you’re not working the flight
Most passengers don’t even know there is such a person as a CRO or what they do. If the employee doesn’t call the CRO, they are out of the loop. I should know as I was a CRO at one time. 99% of the times I was called in as a CRO, it was because of simple misunderstandings that were easily handled.
As a society, it is high time we stop pretending as if flight attendants are some kind of altruistic first responder miracle workers who walk on water and somehow spare all of humanity from certain doom. In reality, they are glorified waiters and waitresses who work on conveyances that are statistically (nearly) as safe as escalators. Yet, they are consistently over-empowered in situations like this for reasons that I will never understand.
Yet again, a full-of-herself FA manages to act like an entitled and rude b-word……and come out on top by tag teaming the paying passenger with flight crew. It happens more often than we ever see reported in blogs like this, just usually in more subtle ways.
Two things. 1) The “not hearing” incident with the off-duty employee happened before entering the plane, but it’s not clear what was involved. It wasn’t the safety instructions. 2) The hearing impairment issue is potentially complex. As has been noted, a direct conversation is easier to understand when face to face as opposed to some behind or to the side. It appears tht the incident happened during the boarding process when the wife “ignored” someting the employee said to her and the employee assumed that it was intentional.
Wild that everyone assumes that the flight attendant must be in the wrong and that he didn’t say anything intimidatory or threatening to them. Removing someone from a plane requires so much paperwork after a flight that FAs aren’t paid for and you’re at risk of losing your job when you make the wrong call… why is the assumption that the pax is right here?
Hopefully United Airlines bleeds a lot of money from a lawsuit, whether by settlement or trial. Things like this don’t make their flight attendants sympathetic in their fight for higher wages.
When one talking coke machine does this, they should fire 100 more at random as an example. Get them to police each other to try to change the culture a little.
As for why is the passenger right and not the complaining airline employee, the passenger’s husband makes a compelling argument for the passenger. Too bad that the complaining airline employee sent others to do the dirty work and didn’t show up with an argument.
That’s United for you. I’m convinced this is another area where they exceed the issues often associated with AA.
@Andy – As Penny once said on The Big Bang Theory, “everyone knows that deaf people don’t lie!”
Apparently paying David dau $5 million bucks or more wasn’t enough to knock some sense into United Airlines and their arrogant employees leave some of the employees and every airline are just damn arrogant
@Andy what’s your line do you work for?
I really can’t judge with confidence what happened from the available information, and who is in the wrong. But I do think that the way to avoid serious wrong doing on both sides is individual accountability. Yes, a truely obnoxious or threatening passenger should be ejected and banned from the airline. But on the other side a fine against the airline or even disciplining of a employee by the airline isn’t sufficient, IMO, given union ptotections and a desire by the airline to avoid essentially admitting civil liability by disciplining the employee. These events should be reported to FAA by both the passenger and airline, and investigated if there is sufficient evidence in the complaint to warrant it. If the employee has willfully violated a passenger’s rights, their FAA work license should be affected, whether it be a letter of reprimand, probationary period, suspension or revocation. It also troubles me that the person who makes the final decision to remove the passenger (usually the captain) doesn’t always speak directly to the passenger and witnesses. This should be required if the pane is on the ground.