Sunday’s incident where a man was dragged off a United Express plane and bloodied was terrible. It’s excruciating to watch the video of the incident unfolding, and later of the disoriented man mumbling “just kill me.”
#flythefriendlyskies @united no words. This poor man!! pic.twitter.com/rn0rbeckwT
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
United is taking the bulk of the blame here, and that’s probably their own fault. Their PR response has been disastrous, with United CEO Oscar Munoz apologizing for having to re-accommodate passengers. As Jimmy Kimmel said last night,
“It’s like how we ‘re-accommodated’ El Chapo out of Mexico,” Kimmel said. “That is such sanitized, say-nothing, take-no-responsibility, corporate B.S. speak. I don’t know how the guy who sent that tweet didn’t vomit when he typed it out.”
This was a tough situation all-around for which there were no good solutions. And things turned from bad to worse when a passenger refused to get off the plane when told to do so by the airline and by police. And it became the source of worldwide outrage when the police overreacted, dragged him off, and bloodied him.
There are a lot of myths about the situation, and it’s leading people to some bad conclusions.
- This didn’t happen because United sold too many tickets. United Express (Republic Airlines) had to send four crew members to work a flight the next morning. The weekend was operationally challenging, this was a replacement crew, if the employees didn’t get to Louisville a whole plane load of passengers were going to be ‘bumped’ when that flight was cancelled, and likely other passengers on other flights using that aircraft would have their own important travel plans screwed up as well.
- United couldn’t have just sent another plane to take their crew even if they had such a plane it’s not clear they had the crew to operate it legally, or that they could have gotten the plane back to Chicago in time legally so prevent ‘bumping’ via cancellation the whole plane load of passengers it was supposed to carry next.
- If the passenger could have just taken Uber, why not the crew? because United doesn’t get to transport its crew any way it wishes whenever it wishes, they’re bound by union contracts and in any case they were following standard established procedures. We can debate those procedures, that’s productive, but United didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.
- United should have just kept increasing the denied boarding offer passengers didn’t willingly get off at $800, they should have gone to $1000 (would that have made a difference?) or $5000 or $100,000 — it’s not the passengers’ fault United didn’t have enough seats. Though the time this would have taken might have lost a takeoff window or taken time where the crew went illegal (and the whole flight had to cancel) or the replacement crew wouldn’t get the legally required rest.
More importantly, United didn’t do it because Department of Transportation regulations set maximum required compensation for involuntary denied boarding (in this case 4 times the passenger’s fare paid up to a maximum of $1350). So they’re not going to offer more than that for voluntary denied boardings, especially since the violent outcome here wasn’t expected and the United Express gate agent had no authority to do more.
I’m being called very terrible things in the comments that I won’t reprint here in this post. What happened to the man was terrible but it was a difficult situation all around, he should have complied when ordered off the plan by United and then by Chicago Aviation Police. It was a terrible situation for him, but one that at that point could foreseeably have gotten worse. I’m just glad he wasn’t accused of disrupting the flight as part of a terrorist plot that sort of thing can happen in confrontations like this.
The Chicago Aviation Police overreacted and appear to have used way too much force. One officer is already on leave because of the incident, the Aviation Police recognize some fault is likely there — and that’s a pretty high hurdle to climb considering the Chicago Police Department immediately stood up for an officer by claiming horribly that he had simply ‘fallen on his face’.
Is it possible that if circumstances were different — if different things had been done before Sunday — then the outcome would have been different? Sure. Although what those things are, what the consequences of those things would be, are debatable — and most people doing the debating don’t have much or even any information on which to base their judgments.
Fault here lies with:
- United for not having as many seats as they sold, although it wasn’t because they sold more seats than the plane held, it was because their operation became a mess and they needed to salvage that to inconvenience the fewest passengers overall. It wasn’t “to maximize their profits” although they certainly wanted to limit their losses by limiting passenger inconvenience.
- The passenger who should have gotten off the plane when ordered to do so. It sucked for him and wasn’t his fault, but refusing airline and police instructions unless designed to provoke a violent response for media attention to promote a civil rights cause is a bad idea.
- The Chicago Aviation Police shouldn’t have responded with the force they did. They’re the most to blame. If they hadn’t used as much force this whole thing would never even have been a story.
United’s statements backing their employee, refusing to name the victim, or acknowledge that the police really did hurt him are deplorable.
But the situation itself lands mostly at the feet of the police, who appear to recognize this based on actions thus far.
So what do we do to prevent this in the future? The truth is there’s not very much. Running an airline is hard. Weather and mechanical problems and back luck and IT problems cancel and delay flights, so they work hard to recover.
Maybe the maximum denied board compensation should be even higher, though that’s not clearly an issue. When the Department of Transportation began regulating denied boarding in the 1970s, there were about 150,000 involuntary denied boardings in the U.S. per year — and now with many more passengers the number there are in the 40,000s. As flights have gotten more full, the percentage of passengers denied boarding has gone down.
The real solution here is to change the culture of law enforcement in aviation. As soon as there’s even a misunderstanding between passengers and crew, that can trigger law enforcement. The assumption is that the passenger is always wrong, the airline backs its crew, and there’s tremendous risk to the public. Not every customer service situation is a crime.
This is in no way limited to being a United issue, it’s endemic to American society and aviation as a whole. It’s a function of the growth of the security state in response to 9/11. We’ve come to accept it, and indeed we get it from the TSA day in and day out. Until that changes, incidents like these are likely to repeat themselves.
It isn’t a matter of being a “scared pussy,” it is having an educated and rationale mind. The day we start ignoring direction from police, fighting back and resisting is the day we meet our maker—oh, I forgot, that is happening a lot these days and is so easily avoidable. Idiots!
@Michael @Bill
That is irrelevant. It could of been you, or me. So your opinion on what is “right” depends on who the person is? Next you’re gonna say he deserved it because ______? Hmmm, that line of thinking doesn’t sound right, does it? Sounds more like prejudice to me…
Either way, United was in the wrong.
It’s simple ask someone else to get the fuck off the plane you guys have no logic at all.
Let’s get to the real point here people. NO ONE GENUINELY CARES ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING. People just want a reason to fight a big corporation. Know what’s gonna happen? It’s gonna end up being made fun of on late night shows and talked about on the news. United is gonna make tickets cheap and people are going to fly united because it’s gonna be cheap only ones that are actively gonna “protest” them are this man’s direct family and network of friends.
A good legal analysis: http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/united-cites-wrong-rule-for-illegally-de-boarding-passenger/
“it appears that United is seeking to blame the passenger, claiming that when asked to give up his seat, he acted belligerently – and citing a rule which requires that passengers obey the orders of the flight crew. But, such a requirement applies only to orders which are lawful. If, for example, the flight crew had ordered two passengers to fight each other for the amusement of the other passengers, or to take off all their clothing, the passengers would not be required to comply, and their forceful removal could not be based upon refusing to follow unlawful orders.”
Sally Smith: Not resisting unjustifiable demands of police: You mean like the national hero, Rosa Parks?
Also, Jayse Anspach, a passenger on UA 3411 (and the videographer) was an eye-witness to the incident. He says the couple originally accepted the offer UNTIL they learned the flight on which they would be rebooked did not depart until [approx] 3.00 p.m. the following day. That seems important information to me in assessing the entire incident.
If it was your Mum or Dad you wouldn’t even have contemplated writing this tripe. I think you need to come clean and tell us your real relationship with United……
Nicholas: Unlike Rosa Parks, he was not justified
For those complaining about denied compensation perhaps people should not be allowed to double book flights or no show and not cancel. Overselling flights is a response to the irresponsible practices of many consumers. Airlines still offer a tremendous bargain for transportation and if you don’t believe me next time take Amtrak or Greyhound. people in general love to complain about airlines, hospitals, automobile manufactures, the government and other industries and institutions but seldom do they actually think for example about what it takes to get an airplane up in the air, run a hospital, or make a car . There are a lot of moving pieces and when they don’t always work properly we complain. I get that. Many times poor management, unhappy workers, ill designed processes and other factors rightfully put the blame at the feet of the company in question. Most modern day airlines get this and work hard to improve issues that are cause for customer complaints. This however seems to be a case where the agent was left with decision that would undoubtedly leave some customers unhappy. Since this is time sensitive process they couldn’t run it up the chain of management to get a completely error free solution. The truth is just because you pay $200, $300 or even $1,000 to fly from point A to point B you aren’t guaranteed to get there exactly as booked. Even more if the airlines cannot deliver they are not legally obliged to do anything other than refund your ticket. You don’t own the airline, airplane or the seat. When you rent a car or book a hotel room likewise they may well tell you that the room or the car is no longer available. Regardless if you have paid in advance. That said the airline does not want to create ill will and will try to go out of their way to ensure they don’t. For those that side strictly with the traveler you should ask yourself is his response/behavior consistent with an adult (a doctor no less). Also please remember those dragging the man down the aisle were airport police not United employees. They are trained to handle noncompliant airline passengers. Everyone should take a step back get the emotions out of the mix and seriously thank the airlines in general for making modern travel easy, quick and reasonable. We can argue about comfort perhaps but todays flights are loaded with entertainment, wifi and other perks. Also think about how you would respond if the police asked you to comply regardless of the situation. If you say I will fight them then I feel sorry for you.
I will personally be sure to never fly on United Airlines again. That is the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.
I am not aware of any law that restrict UA to offer more compensation in this case. They are asking someone to come off the plane, spend a night at an airport hotel and delay arrival for 24 hours. They need to pay more.
UA has no incentive to negotiate fair compensation in good faith, as long as it can hide behind IDB rules. To stop this from happening, IDB rules in this country should be brought in line with Europe.
Maximum required compensation is not the same thing as maximum allowable compensation. Implying that it’s so is poor analysis. It is also a poor excuse for not escalating incentives.
Worst of all, this article deflects attention from the fundamental problem. A man was assaulted and injured over a civil dispute. An airline had a guy roughed up for not wanting to give up his seat. And, before pubic reactions, the airline thought that this was ok.
It is not ok.
BS!!! There is no excuse for beating up a passenger.
To those who insist that somehow this was a racially charged event or that somehow this guy is on par with Rosa Parks (for the love of Pete!) I say you are simply silly and really part of the problem. I am sure that United is working hard to ensure this doesn’t happen again. However to make this guy out to be akin to the next civil right martyr is a bridge too far. Like I said it is absurd. He bought a ticket not the airplane or airline. Yes he was going to be inconvenienced and for that the airline was willing to pay $800 a ticket, plus hotel, plus meals to compensate him. Of course they were still going to get him to his final destination. My god, does he want? Yes I admit it appears that the incident could have been handled better but since no one on this blog were there to witness it I doubt we know exactly what led up to this guy getting a little crazy about missing his flight. Since we do know that he has a criminal past related to drugs and was recommended to receive psychological counseling isn’t possible that he over reacted to the situation and may well be partially to blame for some rathe4r bizarre behavior?
Why not replace the crew that was operating the flight? Then buy sme time for another crew to get to where they need to go? If this were the last flight out, overnight the new crew and have them deal with the reworked schedules somewhere else along the line?
“Not every customer service situation is a crime.” That is the most significant take-away from this post. Well stated Gary. The airline business seems to have spiraled down to the level where every customer service situation can be considered a crime.
Gary – I don’t mean to pile on here – you obviously straddle the line for a living – and do a very good, useful and entertaining job of that. If I were you I wouldn’t try to carry United’s water on this one. Hell, they’re not even trying to do that for themselves at this point. Technicalities aside, there is no excuse for what happened, much less for their handling of it
“The real solution here is to change the culture of law enforcement in aviation. As soon as there’s even a misunderstanding between passengers and crew, that can trigger law enforcement. The assumption is that the passenger is always wrong, the airline backs its crew, and there’s tremendous risk to the public. Not every customer service situation is a crime.”
Good point, however the culture at United, Delta, and American Airlines is unprecedented in how poor they are compared to any other airline in the world.
They just plain suck. Air travel just became alot riper for competition from a company who know how to treat its customers.
And here’s a thought. How about picking someone other than a doctor who had a hospital call the next day.
It seems if United had approximately $5,400 to spend (on its employees’ travel) –based on the amount it could have offered the passengers to de-plane (based on a maximum of $1,350 per de-planing passenger) United could have found its employees a private plane to fly in (one -way) to Louisville and alleviated the whole scenario on the plane with the violent removal of a passenger.
The fact that the “law allows” United to do what they did, is debatable. What they really did was to commit an assault and battery, with perhaps some false imprisonment thrown in for good measure, by forcibly removing the passenger they way they did it. The airport security personnel were certainly United’s “agents” in the matter.
Most of the rest of us (consumers) do not do and would not do everything the “law allows” us to do –especially when it would inconvenience another human being in a very tangible way, so the fact that United has some “legal right” to ask passengers to de-plane because of its over-booking and scheduling conflicts, leaves me with a very dissatisfied feeling particularly since many of us (including myself) have enough anxiety already about airports and airplanes in general and our
specific flight and seating arrangement in particular.
This was simply bad form on United’s part and a poorly executed re-shuffling of passengers. It should have also been handled in full prior to the boarding of the plane —-not after everyone was seated. How much education (from non-airline professionals) does United need to do things in a humane fashion?
Gary, your attempts at whitewashing this behavior is disgusting. Beating up a passenger it absolutely out of the ordinary. And you clearly seem to value union contracts way more than “fly me to my destination contracts” for which the passengers paid for in full.
The passenger had an assigned and paid-for seat and he should correctly NOT have left it. The other 3 who have left their seats should not have done so either. If United made the mistake of boarding to many people they should own their mistake. The gate agent could have used his phone to ask his supervisor for permission to offer more money. The term “maximum required compensation” states explicitly that MORE could be offered, just not that more is required by law.
The only reason I can think of why you are so staunchly defending this behavior is that you know that you will never be ejected yourself because of your frequent flyer miles or business contacts. Which makes your whole post even more reprehensible.
You are aware that this guy was 69 years old and is still hospitalized as a result of this right?
passengers purchase an expiring commodity, a ticket for a specific flight. If they don’t show up for that flight the ticket should expire but instead the airlines make arrangements for other flights. If passengers showed up for the flight they purchased a ticket for the airlines wouldn’t have to oversell seats.
I talked to many people who said they absolutely would have taken the $800 voucher, so I find it hard to believe that those were offered to everyone – I suspect a breakdown in communication on that issue. Secondly, I read that the airline could have chartered a flight for their crew for $20,000. That seems a steep price, but not as pricey as this backlash will be.
United stock lost 240 million today and will lose a lot more in the coming days. I’m sure the doctor is planning his retirement with the lawsuit he’s about to win.
@Carolyn Actually he is Vietnamese not Chinese and has been here for decades and works as a doctor, so yes the asian guy speaks english. He has a checkered past that the media has been digging into, but that seems totally inappropriate of the media since it has nothing to do with what happened on that United flight.
Sally Smith: “Three reasonable, rational people got off the plane when asked..” Good God, this is the most ridiculous comment here. What choice did they have? It was walk off or be beaten and dragged off. We know for a fact that they didn’t think a crappy voucher was sufficient compensation for leaving the plane, otherwise they would have taken the offer before it was forced on them.
The closet authoritarians (or United shills) are crawling out of the woodwork here. “Do what you’re told”, even if the only reason they’re forcing you to do it is that the airline is too cheap to come up with a couple grand in real cash compensation.
The entire way that situation was handled was brutal and the tactics used were like those of Hitler’s Gestapo. What the hell is this world coming to? I hope that doctor sues for millions. I’m sure the top personal injury lawyers in the country are already circling for a big payday.
@Bill –
“That is irrelevant. It could of been you, or me.”
It would NOT have been Gary. He has status with United. Would they have ordered a first-class passenger off? Of course not. Does anyone believe this was random in the sense of a lottery among *all* passengers? Of course not. As in all aspects of the aviation industry, we all know the lucky entrants in this “random” lottery were the people who United doesn’t mind inconveniencing. The people who wait longer in the security line, board last, and the airline does everything in its power at every turn to communicate “you’re not important.” Even if you tell me that some independent auditor was there checking the lottery and even the first-class passengers had an equal chance of being bumped, the fact is that the whole airport experience creates a haves and have-nots feeling, and people are sick of just being shafted and gouged. You would not see something like this on Southwest, where there is a culture of communicating with people and trying to treat people basically about the same. Sure, you can status or buy your way to a higher boarding position, but even if the person who bought the cheapest seat can log in 24 hours before departure and get a pretty good place in the queue, and even for that lowest-priced passenger in, there’s no change fees, no checked-bag fees, and the same smile and “can I help you approach.” When I want help at United or Delta their first question is “what is your status?” At Southwest, people don’t enter a transaction with the sense “this airline is trying to gouge me for everything they can get.” You’re damn right United should have kept upping the ante until somebody said “sold.”
So you are stating that the airline had more need to have the 4 crew on the flight to fly other flights in the morning so that countless others wouldnt have their travel plans postponed. This man is a doctor who stated he had patients to see in the morning and could not have his travel postponed til the morning. To me the lives of other is greater than the travel plans of people. He is a pulmonary doctor which deals with the heart for those who dont know, I think that trumps getting people to their vacations on time, after hearing his valid concerns for missing the flight perhaps the manager should have taken that logic to attention and excluded him from the process. So much back tracking on this its unbelieveable, first the chief of chicago police releasing a statement that the man was treated for injuries to his face after falling down while being escorted off the flight by police then remaining silent once video evidence is released that shows this forced removal of the passenger. I wish there was video of the supposed belligerence of the passenger before the authorities were called, which im surprised there wasn’t when the world documents everything these days.
Another shill post on behalf of the multimillionaire dictators that run the airlines.
A while back, airlines wouldn’t stop imprisoning people on the tarmac voluntarily, it took regulation to make them do. Heck, they even paid shills like you to write pseudo babble articles saying that the world as we knew it would fall if regulation prevented airlines from imprisoning people on the tarmac.
What we need is to Make America Great Again and give citizens RIGHTS, ban overbooking — which has no business reason to exist, as Southwest, Hawaiian, Virgin America etc. attest — and give citizens some rights.
Airlines have shown over and over again that they’re abusive without proper citizen protections.
This too shall pass.
However, it does provide the idea for a winning reality TV show. Each week offer a completely free flight between major destinations. However, the conditions of carriage insist that one passenger will be selected randomly for a videotaped beating to be placed on the airline’s YouTube channel. Lots of good options for a catchy name for the show, too.
I would be more likely to book United if they PROMISED that all passengers that refused orders to leave the plane would be beaten up.
I understood everything you said about what a difficult situation United was in. IT IS STILL UNITED’s problem, not the passengers. If United has problem managing it’s personnel to be where they should be on a timely manner, that is United’s incompetency in human resource management, not a paying passenger’s fault. Your arguments simply aren’t good enough. Why should anyone in the right need to comply to an unreasonable demand? We resonated because we all can see ourselves defending what we believe is right. Yes, the aviation police’s tactics are deplorable but they are acting on United’s behalf. United rightfully deserved every bit of blame it has gotten. The aviation police department will have its comeuppance once United is dealt with. We as consumers do have choices not to be abused by an airline that puts their interests ahead of ours. If United is so bad at managing their human resources so that planes can’t take off without putting someone in the hospital or resorting to tactics like this, I’m sorry to say, many of us will not trust our future travel plans with a company like this.
I also find your article to be completely contradictory to itself. One one hand you try to justify and defend United’s behavior yet on the other hand you warn that episodes like this will likely to repeat if nothing changes. We are outraged and we demand changes starting with United. We are sending a message that this is not tolerable under any circumstances and we better not see a repeat. We did not come to any wrong conclusions on anything; bottom line, it is United’s responsibility to manage their human resource, not us, so don’t trouble us, the paying customers, with their internal problems and incompetence.
This is all so elementary. When any person pays for a good or service, then he/she has the reasonable expectation to have that good or service. The man paid for his seat and wanted or needed to get to his destination just as urgently as this other crew. To even defend these actions flies in the face of human decency. Perhaps the airline should work on some sort of airline pool they can draw from in such an emergency. Poor planning on their part should never spark an international incident.
It’s not about the fact of the max amount allowed by law for involuntarily removing someone because you need their seats…United (and ALL airlines) should NEVER have to get to the point of involuntarily removing someone from a flight, especially to accommodate employees. They should offer enough money to get VOLUNTEERS to give up their seats. I would imagine when they hit a couple thousand dollars, more than four people would’ve given up their seats. Do the right thing and take care of the paying customers.
I wonder how much money you got paid to write this article. Disgusting!
If they hadn’t tried offering the maximum amount of money they could have offered to induce a passenger to sell his or her seat, they certainly should have done so before calling in law enforcement. That should have been the very minimum requirement for their behavior. They are guilty not only of causing Chicago police to assault an innocent person, but of using public resources (police officers) as their own private security force in order to save a few hundred dollars.
Allison Palmer: “I talked to many people who said they absolutely would have taken the $800 voucher”. It seems to me a couple of factors are relevant: firstly it was a Sunday night and the next flight was 3:30 the next afternoon(!), and the second is that an $800 flight voucher isn’t the same thing as $800 in cash…. vouchers have restrictions and are a pain in the butt, while cash is not. Everyone values their time differently, but speaking for myself I certainly wouldn’t have accepted the voucher… in Canada the rule is that a voucher is only worth 1/3 its cash equivalent and that seems about right to me.
First of all, it’s airline spin to call this an overbooking. The statutory provision granting them the ability to deny boarding is about ” OVERSALES”, specifically defines as booking more reserved confirmed seats than there are available. This is not what happened. They did not overbook the flight; they had a fully booked flight, and not only did everyone already have a reserved confirmed seat, they were all sitting in them. The law allowing them to denying boarding in the event of an oversale does not apply.
Even if it did apply, the law is unambiguously clear that airlines have to give preference to everyone with reserved confirmed seats when choosing to involuntarily deny boarding. They have to always choose the solution that will affect the least amount of reserved confirmed seats. This rule is straightforward, and United makes very clear in their own contract of carriage that employees of their own or of other carriers may be denied boarding without compensation because they do not have reserved confirmed seats. On its face, it’s clear that what they did was illegal– they gave preference to their employees over people who had reserved confirmed seats, in violation of 14 CFR 250.2a.
Furthermore, even if you try and twist this into a legal application of 250.2a and say that United had the right to deny him boarding in the event of an overbooking; they did NOT have the right to kick him off the plane. Their contract of carriage highlights there is a complete difference in rights after you’ve boarded and sat on the plane, and Rule 21 goes over the specific scenarios where you could get kicked off. NONE of them apply here. He did absolutely nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been targeted. He’s going to leave with a hefty settlement after this fiasco.
Seriously?! How much did United pay you to write this stupidity?!! This is the most stupid thing you wrote, “United should have just kept increasing the denied boarding offer passengers didn’t willingly get off at $800, they should have gone to $1000 (would that have made a difference?) or $5000 or $100,000”. $100,000 is going to pennies on the millions United is going to lose in court never mind customers. I pay $10,000 to $20,000 is excess baggage fees for my production company every year and 10 times that amount in plane tickets. Are you suggest United couldn’t afford to go to $1,000. If they went to $1,500 people would have been fighting to give up their seat. This will result, as it should, in Congressional action. You my friend should find another line of work because anyone that trusts you, shouldn’t!
United caused a passenger – a doctor who himself had obligations to patients – to be sent to the hospital because it decided to use force rather than pay for a private flight for its crew. I hope they get sued into financial bankruptcy the same way they have devolved into moral bankruptcy.
Same thing as resisting arrest. Done deal. I’m sorry but where were you folks brought up to not respect Law enforcement like you do. Police told you to do something, do it, or expect some harsh consequences. This guy may be a nice guy, I don’t know. But he defied police orders, sorry but that’s that. Did he deserve to be beaten, probably not, but he was going to be removed either way once the police were there. Doctor smarts should of realized that and gotten the %$@* up. This guy will sue and get a nice hefty settlement to shut him up, probably a free flight card for anytime with United so saying he won’t fly United again is probably false. Are sue happy society and crappy liability laws are just another problem our society faces along with folks not respecting Police orders whether they are wrong or not.
Does anyone know what happened to the other 3 passengers that were kicked off the flight? Did they get the $800 credit and vouchers or was it just tough luck for not volunteering?
Gary is obviously in the airlines pocket. In my experience customers with status or with corporate travel departments behind them never get ‘randomly’ bumped.
Shame for assaulting an innocent passenger.
I hope he sues in civil court and would love to be on the jury when it comes up for damages.
Same thing as resisting arrest. Done deal. I’m sorry but where were you folks brought up to not respect Law enforcement like you do. Police told you to do something, do it, or expect some harsh consequences. This guy may be a nice guy, I don’t know. But he defied police orders, sorry but that’s that. Did he deserve to be beaten, probably not, but he was going to be removed either way once the police were there. Doctor smarts should of realized that and gotten off. This guy will sue and get a nice hefty settlement to shut him up, probably a free flight card for anytime with United so saying he won’t fly United again is probably false. Are sue happy society and crappy liability laws are just another problem our society faces along with folks not respecting Police orders whether they are wrong or not.
Gary,
You STILL have not provided a relevant answer for how this was legal.
You brought up two straw arguments in your defense:
1) “broken seat discovered”– Red herring. A broken seat is a SAFETY issue, and a crew member is allowed in that example to have you comply with a safety-related issue. There was no safety issue here– flying a crew for a later flight is an operational issue it’s not a safety issue for purposes of the current flight.
2) You can’t see the forest for the trees on what “boarding” means. Having a ticket scanned and sitting on a plane is “boarding”. This was not an oversold situation. United tired to add employees after this gentlemen and you have still not cited a situation where they had a legal right to remove him BEFORE he boarded the plane which was AFTER United had the normally long-list of reasons they could have done so in an IDB situation– once he legally boarded there are different and fewer reasons they could kick him off. By your absurd example, the plane could have taken off, turned around, and a passenger be IDB’d. Plain English context is your friend.
I have also worked for a large, international airline (now long bankrupt/gone due to their own idiocy/inefficiencies…and good riddance) and while the author of this article feels compelled to be United’s unappointed apologist (maybe he thinks they will gratefully pad his frequent flier account?) by saying “United didn’t do anything out of the ordinary”, this much is true…because most larger airlines have a seniority-based crew/staff that are very beaten-down, not very vested or even interested in doing their jobs anymore. Had the agents been remotely sympathetic and competent, then a) this ENTIRE issue of the 4 needed seats SHOULD have been resolved before the passengers boarded the plane to avoid such scenes. They could have chosen the 4 unwilling passengers, taken their boarding passes and prevented them from boarding; easier to stop a passenger from boarding than to make them exit. b) the author forgets that both the passengers AND THE CREW could have been “reprotect”ed on COMPETITOR airlines to get them to Louiseville. Why didn’t United do this? Because of course it costs them money, and they are all about their bottom-line. Lastly c) Back to the compensation, yes, carriers are limited to the maximum amount they can offer….BUT THEY DID NOT OFFER THE MAXIMUM! If they did, this entire episode may not have happened. Once again, this comes down to the bottom-line and the lackluster, ineffective attitude of many (most?) airline employees working for larger corporate airlines. And as someone who has been boycotting United since 2008 for an entirely SIMILAR treatment, I can vouch that United is probably the worst airline operating in the US with regard to how they treat their employees AND their passengers.
Except United Airlines didn’t oversell the flight. The crew members came to the gate after the flight was boarded with confirmed passengers, saying they needed to get to Louisville. At that point, United acted beyond their Contract of Carriage by removing passengers involuntarily. The aforementioned contract says that crew are not considered passengers, “an oversold flight is one where there are more confirmed passengers than available seats,” and the CEO of United clearly labeled the four UA individuals as crew members in his letter to the AP. So if it wasn’t an oversold situation, what rationale did they have for removing him from the flight?
I only wonder why this situation was not handled BEFORE the plane was boarded. Before everyone was in the seats they paid for. Why not handle it at the gate? US surely knew ahead of time that they needed to get those employees on that flight.
You are to close to the airline industry. If “aviation”police dragged a rider out of an uber we would be horrified. Who do they think they are. Thugs with a badge. We is the mediation, reasonable communication. United is apsolutly responsible. I will not fly united if there is ANY other airline available to my destination. Ralph
If the airlines officials had offered the allowed $1350 voucher I bet there would have been more takers than they needed! My husband is 69 (the same age as the passenger dragged off the plane) and has a heart pacemaker and other health issues including high blood pressure and a seizure disorder. Dragging someone his age off a plane could have been fatal! It is not only abuse… it could also be considered “elder abuse!” How did they know if the passenger had any medical conditions? Now his name has also been dragged through the media mud with all kinds of allegations which have nothing to do with his being physically assaulted after having purchasing a ticket in good faith expecting to be able to go home! Disgraceful!