'Volunteer' gets violently dragged off plane

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**Disciple of Fate**

This seems to be popping up all over the media, apparently a United Airlines flight was overbooked and they had to get some staff on. They offered financial incentive to people willing to volunteer their seat. When no one volunteered they randomly selected four volunteers. One of the volunteers in question refused to get off and was violently dragged off the airplane. This is not the first time United Airlines has been in the news over some 'controversial' decisions in recent times. Seems bloody harsh as they could have found a way for their staff to get to the destination in another way instead of publicly dragging off a paying costumer. What do you think, good chance to get a nice settlement? Or will United claim he was resisting crew instructions and win any lawsuit? Videos are in the link.

Randomly picked the BBC article: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39554421

Videos showing a man being violently removed from a United Airlines flight have provoked an outcry on social media.
The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being violently pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle as passengers prepared to take off from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening.
The airline in question - United - has tweeted an apology for what happened and says it is investigating.
One 50-second clip of the incident on Twitter was re-tweeted 16,000 times since it was posted that day.
Jayse D Anspach, who posted the footage tweeted: "#United overbooked and wanted four of us to volunteer to give up our seats for personnel that needed to be at work the next day."
"No one volunteered, so United decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife."
"The doctor needed to work at the hospital the next day, so he refused to volunteer," Mr Anspach added.
"Ten minutes later, the doctor runs back into the plane with a bloody face, clings to a post in the back, chanting, "I need to go home."
Another passenger Audra D. Bridges, posted a video of the incident on Facebook that has been viewed over 400,000 times.
She wrote: "Please share this video. We are on this flight. United airlines overbooked the flight."
"They randomly selected people to kick off so their standby crew could have a seat.
"This man is a doctor and has to be at the hospital in the morning," she added.
"He did not want to get off. We are all shaky and so disgusted."

In a statement United airlines told the BBC: "Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked."
"After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate," the airline added.
The chief executive of United, Oscar Munoz, has since made a statement on Twitter: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologise 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.
"We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve the situation," he added.

**Frazzled**

Thats a major settlement. The person needs to immediately call reporters.

1. He has a contracted ticket.
2. At worst he is trespassing. Police have the ability to remove the passenger. Airline employees are committing battery in attempting to do so.

United...color me shocked. I actively avoid that hole.

**d-usa**

The airline can involuntarily bump anyone they want, it's in the contract of carriage. You are entitled to compensation by law if they do. If you refuse to leave, they can have the police assist you with leaving. At that point you are interfering with the operation of an aircraft and could face federal charges.

The time to fight and argue with the airline is NEVER while you are physically on the airplane. It's a no-win situation.

**reds8n**

footage leaked from United's training videos :

http://imgur.com/hTDGHhb

**Disciple of Fate**

Frazzled wrote:
Thats a major settlement. The person needs to immediately call reporters.

1. He has a contracted ticket.
2. At worst he is trespassing. Police have the ability to remove the passenger. Airline employees are committing battery in attempting to do so.

United...color me shocked. I actively avoid that hole.

Based on what I've read and their statement, they actually got law enforcement involved so him getting banged up might be put up as resisting. This is just such a bizarre case, you really don't train your employees well if they think this was the right way to do things in the age of the internet and smartphones.

**d-usa**

reds8n wrote:
footage leaked from United's training videos :

http://imgur.com/hTDGHhb

They updated it:

**Disciple of Fate**

d-usa wrote:
The airline can involuntarily bump anyone they want, it's in the contract of carriage. You are entitled to compensation by law if they do. If you refuse to leave, they can have the police assist you with leaving. At that point you are interfering with the operation of an aircraft and could face federal charges.

The time to fight and argue with the airline is NEVER while you are physically on the airplane. It's a no-win situation.

True, but I would like to think United would offer him something more than just the normal compensation to sooth this PR disaster.

**jhe90**

Yeah.. I can see why he was pissed-off. But thr check in desk and such. They have to pay you compensation, book you on next flights and such of equal class.

Resisting on a airplane. Is a hard thing to counter.

I do think that this is pretty damn unfair to over book though.

**Disciple of Fate**

Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

**d-usa**

Disciple of Fate wrote:
Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

Why offer more when $800 guarantees you seats?

**Frazzled**

No no you guys misperceive what was going on. He was freaking out because they were trying to put him in the middle seat.

Have you been on the middle seat on a United Flight? When even Putin goes "damn that looks uncomfortable" you know there's a problem. I'd fight like a fat wiener dog too.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

d-usa wrote:
Disciple of Fate wrote:
Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

Why offer more when $800 guarantees you seats?

Evidently it only guarantees a buttkicking.

**Vaktathi**

Yet another reason to always avoid United like the plague.

Aside from awful layovers, sardine seating, routinely lost bags, and idiotic connecting routes.

**Disciple of Fate**

d-usa wrote:
Disciple of Fate wrote:
Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

Why offer more when $800 guarantees you seats?

Well I probably should have phrased that better. I meant why not offer more if the alternative was to physically drag a person out of the plane in front of all the passengers. They might have been technically correct (the best kind ofc) but not according to society going by the backlash/slow news day.

**d-usa**

Disciple of Fate wrote:
d-usa wrote:
Disciple of Fate wrote:
Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

Why offer more when $800 guarantees you seats?

Well I probably should have phrased that better. I meant why not offer more if the alternative was to physically drag a person out of the plane in front of all the passengers. They might have been technically correct (the best kind ofc) but not according to society going by the backlash/slow news day.

It will be old news by Friday, and people will still book tickets on United as long as they are the cheapest, are frequent fliers, or are booked via corporate. Remember the leggings outrage on the airplane? Neither do most other people.

**Frazzled**

United was completely correct about that.

**Disciple of Fate**

d-usa wrote:
Disciple of Fate wrote:
d-usa wrote:
Disciple of Fate wrote:
Just to add what is seemingly missing on the BBC article. The financial compensation they would give next to another flight went up to $800. You would think they could have offered a little more to see if people wanted to go off after.

Why offer more when $800 guarantees you seats?

Well I probably should have phrased that better. I meant why not offer more if the alternative was to physically drag a person out of the plane in front of all the passengers. They might have been technically correct (the best kind ofc) but not according to society going by the backlash/slow news day.

It will be old news by Friday, and people will still book tickets on United as long as they are the cheapest, are frequent fliers, or are booked via corporate. Remember the leggings outrage on the airplane? Neither do most other people.

Thanks for your insight. I realize people's memories are short, but in that short time its in the news I'm quite curious if it would have any effect on ticket sales. Which would be extremely difficult to pin down at best and plain impossible at worst, but you can always wonder if it would have been more than the $800 offered.

**d-usa**

Frazzled wrote:
United was completely correct about that.

The leggings?

Yeah, most stories left out the important detail about them flying on employee tickets with a more strict dress code.

**Frazzled**

d-usa wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
United was completely correct about that.

The leggings?

Yeah, most stories left out the important detail about them flying on employee tickets with a more strict dress code.

Exactly.

**kronk**

First off, if forced off the plane, I would comply with the request. However,

clings to a post in the back, chanting, "I need to go home."

I would be chanting more colorfully as I was removed.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

d-usa wrote:
, or are booked via corporate.

That's my situation. I would prefer American or Delta, but my 2 choices are United and SouthWest. SouthWest doesn't fly out of O'Hare and Midway is WAY too fething far from home to be an option.

**Howard A Treesong**

They shouldn't be overbooking the plane. Are they hoping to sell more tickets than they have seats in the hope some cancel?

**Disciple of Fate**

Howard A Treesong wrote:
They shouldn't be overbooking the plane. Are they hoping to sell more tickets than they have seats in the hope some cancel?

Afaik overbooking is standard practice, as in many cases not everyone will show up and this prevents empty seats which they hate. But then you get things like this in which everybody shows up and someone needs to get left behind.

**kronk**

Disciple of Fate wrote:
Howard A Treesong wrote:
They shouldn't be overbooking the plane. Are they hoping to sell more tickets than they have seats in the hope some cancel?

Afaik overbooking is standard practice, as in many cases not everyone will show up and this prevents empty seats which they hate. But then you get things like this in which everybody shows up and someone needs to get left behind.

As a frequent flier, overbooking happens a lot on the most popular of my flights (Chicago to Houston is the worst).

I hate the practice, but they do it for the reasons DoF listed. They know a certain % will almost always drop/change the flight last minute and that they can fill the flight if they overbook by 4 people. Shove as many into the plane as possible.

**CptJake**

Disciple of Fate wrote:
Howard A Treesong wrote:
They shouldn't be overbooking the plane. Are they hoping to sell more tickets than they have seats in the hope some cancel?

Afaik overbooking is standard practice, as in many cases not everyone will show up and this prevents empty seats which they hate. But then you get things like this in which everybody shows up and someone needs to get left behind.

In this particular case United wanted/needed 4 seats for employees they wanted/needed at the destination airport to crew another flight. Basically they bumped folks, including the guy in this story so they could transport their own folks.

But yes, overbooking is standard practice in the industry.

**kronk**

CptJake wrote:

In this particular case United wanted/needed 4 seats for employees they wanted/needed at the destination airport to crew another flight. Basically they bumped folks, including the guy in this story so they could transport their own folks.

Oooh! That's a whole new level of BS!

**Frazzled**

Speaking of flights, evidently Kronk has been visiting Turkey.

https://www.aviationcv.com/aviation-blog/2017/turkish-airlines-crew-help-deliver-baby

HAHAHA

**kronk**

Frazzled wrote:
Speaking of flights, evidently Kronk has been visiting Turkey.

https://www.aviationcv.com/aviation-blog/2017/turkish-airlines-crew-help-deliver-baby

HAHAHA

It was just a lay-over...

**Frazzled**

Btum tish yes he's here all week ladies and gentlemen.

**CptJake**

kronk wrote:
CptJake wrote:

In this particular case United wanted/needed 4 seats for employees they wanted/needed at the destination airport to crew another flight. Basically they bumped folks, including the guy in this story so they could transport their own folks.

Oooh! That's a whole new level of BS!

Not really. Delay one flight and bump 4 folks or have to cancel at least one flight (probably more with ripple effect) due to lack of crew. I can see why they wanted to bump the 4 passengers.

Of course, the implementation may need some work in the future.

My understanding is local can only authorize up to $800 in comp, so when no one took them up instead of upping it they randomly pulled 4 names. Probably should have called regional to up the comp before getting the cops involved though.

**d-usa**

kronk wrote:
CptJake wrote:

In this particular case United wanted/needed 4 seats for employees they wanted/needed at the destination airport to crew another flight. Basically they bumped folks, including the guy in this story so they could transport their own folks.

Oooh! That's a whole new level of BS!

Well, they could bump 4 people here, or tell a plane full of people at the other airport that they are not going to fly at all.

But flying sucks ass, people hate it for a reason, and airlines are the devil. I won't disagree here, that's why laws were passed requiring airlines to compensate people who are bumped and re-book them to their destination.

With that said, the sad truth is that the title of the thread should be "man removed by police after refusing to follow crew instructions and interfering with the operation of an aircraft". When you are on that metal tube of suffering, the crew has a lot of legal power and kicking you off the plane is one of them. The proper procedure to deal with that fethery is to collect your compensation (cash, none of that certificate, miles, whatever bs), get re-booked, and shame them on social media to see if you can get anything else out of it. When you start interfering it only goes downhill for you.

**kronk**

d-usa wrote:

Well, they could bump 4 people here, or tell a plane full of people at the other airport that they are not going to fly at all.

Bah! feth those people! I'm on a flight right now!

d-usa wrote:

When you are on that metal tube of suffering, the crew has a lot of legal power and kicking you off the plane is one of them. The proper procedure to deal with that fethery is to collect your compensation (cash, none of that certificate, miles, whatever bs), get re-booked, and shame them on social media to see if you can get anything else out of it. When you start interfering it only goes downhill for you.

Agreed, though.