On Sunday a passenger and agent at a United Airlines ticket counter got into a fight. Little was known initially about the incident.
We know know that the passenger at Newark airport was former NFL player Brendan Langley (who was a third round draft pick as a cornerback by the Denver Broncos in 2017). He currently plays for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. Langley was arrested and charged with assault. He appears to have swung first, at least based on available footage.
Here’s a longer video of the fight than first spread virally, but it doesn’t explain how things started.
This shows it earlier on but doesn't help explain much.pic.twitter.com/Hz5KDBaJME
— Jack Posomeoff (@tigermelons) May 23, 2022
In the video the employee gets bloodied – not surprising when his adversary is a pro footballer – but he comes back and does surprisingly well.
So what triggered this mess?
United instructed him to use a wheelchair to carry his luggage because they were out of their normal dollys . The employee that got beat up chased him down saying he couldn’t use it and then tried to physically remove it from Brendan’s hands which led to the fight.
— Su’a (@iammsuzy) May 23, 2022
The employee should have de-escalated, not exacerbated the incident, and shouldn’t have engaged in the brawl beyond defending himself. He was employed by United Airlines subsidiary United Ground Express and has been terminated.
According to United Airlines,
United Airlines does not tolerate violence of any kind at our airports or on board our planes and we are working with local authorities in their investigation of this matter. United Ground Express informed us that the employee has been terminated.
What happens when you give trash money for being able to kick or throw a ball.
Hopefully the union gets the employee a nice payout.
Since United Airlines subsidiary, United Ground Express, terminated this employee for brawling with a customer while on the job, he is now a free agent. Therefore, he can apply for his dream job to be a flight attendant at United, Spirit, or Frontier Airlines.
The airline employee strikes the customer first with a left-handed slap which the customer immediately responds with a slap back. Not sure what happened before, but if this goes to trial and I was on the jury there’s no way I’d convict him of assualt.
Not sure what the hell has happened, but people at airports have gone crazy the past few years. Don’t blame masks or the pandemic… those are excuses. People need to relax and have some class.
I wonder how it feels to have your ass kicked and fired on the internet in the same day.
I wonder if this was the guy who Breaks Guitars?
To anyone trying to determine who hit who first so adamantly from this or any other phone video, you do realise people begin videoing when they sense there is something happening of value. Usually a raised voice…or more likely, a hit! No one catches the beginning of conflict except continuity filming security cameras which I am sure will be sought. You need a trigger to act and that trigger and a few seconds more are lost.
This guy was fired because he mishandled the situation, but he may have a case against the other guy for the first strike as the football player also does not have the right to hit someone over a chair dispute. The chair belonged to the ground handler. Both are wrong. One lost his job, but the other not off the hook for assault if he started it. He certainly finished it.
A wheelchair theft would elicit little more than an eyeroll from me and just move to the next task.
I mean the flight attendant did throw the first punch. But Why did that EX NFL player have to use the wheelchair for his luggage. Hope whatever Fine he is going to get will be way more than the price of a luggage cart.
Customer service and facing businesses are going to be the hardest to manage and run in the coming years. Airlines and hospitals/health care are the biggest ones who I don’t see realistically getting away from close customer interaction. (Restaurants, hotels, retail, etc are all moving away from contactless transactions). Even schools will go online as teacher shortages multiply. Will be interesting to see how the future of those industries plays out.
*Moving TOWARDS contactless transactions
That BRENDAN is able to punch another person but can’t drag his baggage with wheels. BLM is so overstated. Or it’s “BAGGAGE LIVES MATTER “.
@ MIKE ,
It wasn’t a Flight attendant.
This mess stems from the fact that U.S. airports don’t have free luggage carts that are readily available for use by anyone who doesn’t feel like schlepping their luggage to the check-in counter. Airports in many countries provide carts for free. It is a lot easier on everyone. Maybe Skycaps objected to the idea of airports giving out luggage carts for free. I don’t recall any charge for the carts in Customs at U.S. airports.
“United instructed him to use a wheelchair to carry his luggage because they were out of their normal dollys.”
Yeah right.. There’s no way that happened.
Regardless, the airline employee is also wrong for escalating the situation.
He should have immediately contacted airport police if Brendan Langley was being belligerent or if he was at first the physical aggressor.
Pillowfists Langley hit the smaller guy about 10 times and couldn’t knock him out. United guy probably got bloody hitting his head when he fell. Total embarrassment for Langley he better not fight anyone his size.
Amazing – the thug hit the employee first, as a phone video depicts, and the employee gets fired for defending himself . If the employee had of been black and the thug had of been white, I wonder what the story would be and if the black employee would of been fired…
@DavidMiller you’re not showing your racism too much
Kevin – my question is not racist – it is an honest question based upon reality. Save your “racist” crap for a real racist situation. I stand by my question.
NFL player was wrong. Hope he gets jail time for his actions.
If Trump was president he would never been fired.
David Miller makes baseless assumptions and uses the racial buzzword. These days racists are proud of their racism and have the nerve to be offended when they are called out. If those with racist views were asked to define racism, they will surely exclude themselves from the definition because, the way they look at it, their racist viewpoint is based on fact not prejudice.
john – you are full of shit about me.There was nothing “racist” about my post – you are the one making something out of nothing. But that is to be expected from a lying liberal…
@Gary Leff. Did you find that Tweet on your own or did you neglect to cite me as your source? I posted this tweet in the comments of your prior article on this subject.
@UHNWI – It was sent to me by someone who generally doesn’t want to be credited for their tips. I am fastidious in citing my sources, I think at least as good or better than anyone in this space, thank you for your comment as well.
If the races were reversed, it would be the entitled athlete having to apologize.
White lives don’t matter