United Airlines has been under fire after videos emerged of law enforcement literally dragging a 69-year-old Asian passenger off the Sunday evening flight out of Chicago that was overbooked.?
Videos posted online by other passengers showed a man screaming as officers yanked him from his seat on United Flight 3411 before it departed from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky.?
What exactly happened??
The incident began after the airline was looking for people to give up their seats on a flight that was overbooked. Passengers were offered a hotel stay and compensation ranging from $400 to $800, in accordance with US?Transportation Department rules.?
According to reports, the Audra Bridges, who posted a video of the account on Facebook, said that when no one volunteered to give up a seat, the airline said a computer would randomly pick passengers to be removed from the flight.?
Bridges said that man who identified himself as a doctor said he had patients to see in Louisville in the morning. and refused to move and that's when the airline staff dragged him out.?
The Airline's Response:?
In a letter circulated to employees and seen by Reuters, United Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz did not apologise for the way the passenger was handled, writing that the passenger had "defied" security officers.
Munoz said there are lessons the company can learn from this situation, though he impressed that he "emphatically" stands behind his employees. "We sought volunteers and then followed our involuntary denial of boarding process (including offering up to $1,000 in compensation)," Munoz wrote. "When we approached one of these passengers to explain apologetically that he was being denied boarding, he raised his voice and refused to comply with crew member instructions."
Munoz also shared a statement that United Airlines posted on social media.
The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement that one of the officers did not follow protocol and added that he had been placed on leave pending a review of actions not condoned by the department.
The US Department of Transportation (DOT) said it was reviewing whether United complied with overbook rules that require airlines to set guidelines on how passengers are denied boarding if they do not volunteer to give up their seats.
"While it is legal for the airlines to involuntarily bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline's responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities," a DOT spokesperson said in a statement.
The incident sparked outrage on social media and here's how twitter reacted:?
Late last month, two teenage girls dressed in leggings were denied boarding on a United flight from Denver to Minneapolis because their form-fitting pants did not conform to the dress code for employees or family members using free passes.
Reuters Inputs?