Bloodied Passenger Dragged Off Overbooked United Flight
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Christina Zdanowicz and Emanuella Grinberg, CNN
(CNN) — A man’s refusal to give up his seat on an overbooked United Airlines flight led to an upsetting scene Sunday night.
Several passengers on United flight 3411 from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, captured video of authorities dragging the man off the plane after he apparently refused to leave.
Audra Bridges posted a 31-second clip of the incident on Facebook, which showed three Chicago Department of Aviation security officers yanking a middle-aged man out of a seat. The officers dragged him down the aisle by the arms and legs while another passenger screams in protest.
“It was very traumatic,” passenger Jade Kelley, who was seated across the aisle from the man, told CNN. Officers asked her to move to the back of the plane before removing the passenger so she did not witness the entire event. But she said the sound of the screams still haunt her.
“It was horrible. I had trouble sleeping last night and hearing the video again gives me chills.”
An ‘involuntary de-boarding situation’
The incident occurred after United asked passengers to give up their seats voluntarily for compensation and no one took the airline up on the offer.
Four crew members needed to get on the flight in order to work another one in Louisville or else that flight would be canceled, airline spokeswoman Maddie King said.
When no one volunteered, the airline was forced into an “involuntary de-boarding situation,” airline spokesman Charlie Hobart said.
United used a system that weighs a number of factors to determine which passengers would leave the flight. “The system in place enables us to take a look at how long a customer will need to stay at an airport, for example,” Hobart said. “We also keep unaccompanied minors, we try to keep families together, we take a lot of factors into consideration.”
United employees explained the situation to the man several times, Hobart said. When he refused they followed Department of Transportation protocol and called local law enforcement to forcibly remove him from the plane.
After he was removed, Kelley said the man somehow returned to the plane with blood on his face.
King and Hobart could not explain why the passenger was allowed to board only to be forcibly removed. Nor could they confirm Kelley’s claim that the man returned to the plane and was escorted off a second time, peacefully.
United responds
As video of the incident spread, United came under fire for its handling of the situation.
The backlash prompted CEO Oscar Munoz to issue a statement.
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to reaccommodate these customers,” Munoz said.
“Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation,”
The Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement that the incident “was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department.”
That officer has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation, the statement added.
Merriam-Webster even weighed in on the controversy. The dictionary said it saw a 1900% spike in searches for the definition of the word “volunteer” after the United incident.