United Airlines
Some terrible footage on the news of the scenes on board a United Airlines flight.
It seems that some United staff wanted / needed a seat on the flight, but it was over booked. So the crew asked for for volunteers to give up their seat on the flight.
When enough volunteers didn't come forward, United staff selected someone but he refused to leave (he says he's a doctor and needed to get back home). So the United staff very forcibly removed him - dragging him bloody-faced, screaming and kicking, down the aisle!!
See the item and film of the event here
Disgraceful!
Comments
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Over-booking is bad enough, but when it transpires it is merely to make room for airline staff wanting to travel, utterly disgraceful.
I see United are now claiming the passenger became abusive, I bet he did. But an unconnected passenger in the seat next to him has been quoted as saying at no point was he unreasonable.
A few years ago I was boarding a BA shuttle at Gatwick. At the gate we were told to wait a moment. A few minutes later watched the entire cabin crew of the St Lucia flight we had just arrived on get on to our Manchester shuttle, then told, "Sorry we are over-booked, we will have to bus you to Heathrow".
Clearly, the British Airways customer does NOT come first either.
I was livid, I didn't let it go, and was eventually compensated in excess of the full cost of our return St Lucia flights.
As long as I live I will avoid flying with BA where ever possible.3 -
I am glad I don't fly!!!! At least on a train I can stand up
This has received such bad publicity it wouldn't surprise me if it causes a change of policy by the airlines as none of them will want to get into this sort of trouble again. Also of course, it should never have got to the situation where people were already on the plane. I can understand that airline staff may well need to be in a certain place at a certain time in order to service other flights but there are better ways of doing it. Lets hope the guy concerned gets a good compensation package, I bet the lawyers are queueing up to help him!!!
David
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Disgusting treatment of a human being. If the flight was 'overbooked' it begs lots of questions. Why were people allowed to get as far as boarding before it was noticed? If it was crew relocation, forethought and planning?? I could goon. Does make one very concerned that a ticket booked and paid for 11 months in advance on our NZ flights may not be enough to get you a seat 😱. Not well handled after the event either, modern technology is great to show this type of thing.
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Oh dear, The CEO has now decided to apologise to the Doctor, now undergoing treatment at a hospital for his injuries, and he has now promised that such event will never ever happen again on his airline.
Oops, he is a bit too late with that, having said what a nasty, unsociable character the passenger was and the staff causing injuries in the course of the removal..
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I have flown a couple of times, both with American Airlines and with Delta. Had no problem with either of them. In fact, with Delta, we landed at Atlanta with a connected flight to travel on to San Francisco. The plane was overbooked, and they were asking for volunteers (before we went through the gate), and they assured anyone who wanted to take up their offer that they would be on the next flight, which was in a couple of hours. The only downside was that they were offering vouchers. I still went up to the desk and said that me and my hubby would take up the offer, but only if they gave us money, as it may be years before we came back again. Sadly, they said it was only vouchers. Oh well.
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Seems the passenger lost teeth and had a broken nose and damaged sinuses requiring reconstructive surgery. PM had an American lawyer on tonight who reckoned there wasn't a limited liability on the claim so could be millions. They've refunded all passengers on the flight apparently. Hmmmmm watch this space. The security officers are "on leave".
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It has also caused at least one other couple to report what they considered Air New Zealand were not following their own guidelines for an internal flight in February. Where woman asked to leave her seat so crew could have it. Apparently hubby gave up his seat instead and was put on next flight with $200 compensation.
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