Overbooked flight trouble
Twitter user @Tyler_Bridges posted a shocking Video on Sunday evening. The video showed united airlines employees forcefully dragging a man out of his seat and off of the Flight. The video shows a man being pulled down the aisle by his arms as his glasses fall off and another passenger screams, "Oh my god! Look at what you did to him!"
The flight from O'Hare International Airport was going to Louisville, KY., but was allegedly overbooked by United Airlines. After boarding the flight, passengers were informed that the flight was overbooked and told they needed to have four people leave the flight.
They asked for volunteers to get off of the flight and to take a later flight, in exchange for $400 and the airline to pay for their hotel stay. When no one volunteered, they doubled their offer to $800, but still, no passengers agreed to leave their seat.
The wife of the man who posted the video to Twitter who was also on the plane, Audra Bridges, told the Courier-Journal that when no one volunteered, they used a computer to randomly select passengers. A couple was selected and left without protest, but when the computer selected the man in the video, trouble started.
The man told the United Airlines employees that he was a doctor and that he couldn't get off of the flight due to the fact that he had patients waiting to see him on Monday.
He was told if he didn't cooperate, security would be called and when he still refused to leave his seat, he was dragged from the plane. The video has since gone viral on social media.
United Airlines apologizes
"After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate," Charlie Hobart, a spokesperson for United Airlines, remarked in a statement about the incident.
"We apologize for the overbook situation."
Since the incident, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz has released a statement and said that the airline is reaching out to the passenger in the video to rectify the situation. Munoz said, "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."
Although it's not uncommon for airlines to overbook their flights, it is unusual to physically drag passengers off of flights or to offer such a low amount.
Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst, wondered why United didn't offer a higher price to anyone offering to give up their seat.
"Everybody has their price. If they had allowed the agent to offer a higher incentive, we may never have heard about this," said Harteveldt.
United Airlines has had their fair share of bad PR lately. Recently, a passenger was not allowed on a flight due to their attire and another flight had a pilot who was exhibiting some strange behavior that upset passengers.