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posted by on Wednesday April 12 2017, @03:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the customer-relations dept.

NPR reports

Passengers on a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., were horrified when a man was forcibly removed--violently wrenched from his seat and physically dragged down the aisle. [...] Videos of the scene have prompted calls to boycott United Airlines.

[...] The Chicago Department of Aviation [...] says the actions of the security officers were "not condoned by the Department" and that one individual has been placed on leave pending a review.

[...] Passengers had already boarded on Sunday evening [April 10] at O'Hare International Airport when United asked for volunteers to take another flight the next day to make room for four United staff members who needed seats.

The airline offered $400 and a free hotel, passenger Audra D. Bridges told the Louisville Courier-Journal. When no one volunteered, the offer was doubled to $800. When there were still no bites, the airline selected four passengers to leave the flight--including the man in the video and his wife.

"They told him he had been selected randomly to be taken off the flight", Bridges said.

[...] The man said he was a doctor and that he "needed to work at the hospital the next day", passenger Jayse D. Anspach said.

[...] Both Bridges and Anspach posted videos of three security officers, who appear to be wearing the uniforms of Chicago aviation police, wrenching the man out of his seat, prompting wails. His face appeared to strike an armrest. Then they dragged his limp body down the aisle.

Footage shows the man was bleeding from the mouth as they dragged him away. His glasses were askew and his shirt was riding up over his belly.

"It looked like he was knocked out, because he went limp and quiet and they dragged him out of the plane like a rag doll", Anspach wrote.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2017, @08:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 12 2017, @08:13PM (#493033)
    Well shame they skipped the offering cash step and went straight to the attempting to enforce corporate profit margins with violence phase.

    If it's not worth UA paying a few kilobucks to get passengers willingly off the plane then perhaps it's not worth that much for their staff to be on that plane. They can take another plane maybe even a competitors. Or a bus.

    The thing is, the victim was not denied boarding at the counter, he was "denied boarding" after he had already boarded and was peacefully sitting in his seat.

    People can twist the rules all they like but it's still as retarded as a hotel violently dragging out a paying guest from his room just so hotel staff can sleep in it. Doesn't matter whatever bullshit rules are cited, it's still barbaric. And barbarians would think the perps of such stuff would "need killing" ;). In many old cultures hospitality to strangers is quite important.

    It's completely different from the scenario if the guest was still at the counter and the hotel/airline apologized and told him there wasn't room for him and they will refund him and give him some vouchers.

    That the CEO can make the remarks he made shows why UA staff are that crap. I've seen posts from ex-UA staff defending UA's actions too, so I'm sure most have been trained to be that crap. So I wouldn't ever fly UA unless they somehow dragged me onboard and knocked me unconscious...
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