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Home » Travel » Doctor Dragged Off Oversold United Flight
Travel

Doctor Dragged Off Oversold United Flight

Matthew Klint Posted onApril 10, 2017April 10, 2017 16 Comments

A doctor was literally and forcibly dragged off a United Express flight yesterday for refusing to give up his seat on an oversold flight.

United 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was oversold and in need of four volunteers. United offered $400 plus a hotel voucher, but there were no takers. United upped the offer to $800. Still no takers. So a manager entered the plane and said her computer would choose four passengers to be involuntarily denied boarding.

The first two passengers complied, but the third resisted:

The man became “very upset” and said that he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning. The manager told him that security would be called if he did not leave willingly…and the man said he was calling his lawyer. One security official came and spoke with him, and then another security officer came when he still refused. Then, she said, a third security official came on the plane and threw the passenger against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.

Then he was dragged off. In the video below, it appears he was thrown against the seat across the aisle which left him bloodied as he was dragged down the aisle.

More details here.

United Drags Man Off Flight

Here’s videos from three different angles–

@united @CNN @FoxNews @WHAS11 Man forcibly removed from plane somehow gets back on still bloody from being removed pic.twitter.com/njS3nC0pDl

— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 10, 2017

@united @FoxNews @CNN not a good way to treat a Doctor trying to get to work because they overbooked pic.twitter.com/sj9oHk94Ik

— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 9, 2017

 

@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW

— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017

I’ll add my commentary on this incident shortly, but color me saddened, but not surprised.

(H/T Justin)

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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16 Comments

  1. shaun Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 10:51 am

    I can’t imagine what they would have done to him if he was wearing leggings too!

    • IR15H Reply
      April 10, 2017 at 11:10 am

      Rotfl

    • Greg Reply
      April 10, 2017 at 11:25 am

      @shaun 🙂 It would have worked out perfectly for UA, they just would have denied boarding, and had the seat they needed.

  2. Santastico Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 11:25 am

    I commented in other blogs already but I would rather take a Greyhound bus than fly United. That summarizes my opinion about this company. They were greedy and disrespectful and should have offered couple more dollars to passengers to volunteer all this situation would be avoided. But no, nobody at United understand the law of supply and demand and stopped their offer at $800 and preferred bad publicity and pay a fortune to lawyers than will have to represent them when this doctor sues their a.. What a disgrace of an airline.

  3. A Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 11:28 am

    @shaun-the leggings dress code was for non-revs, United staff flying on its planes. That “scandal” was overblown and unfair to United.

    And this ‘scandal’ is unfair to United. That guy could’ve left peacefully like the other people did. He choose not too.

    • Greg Reply
      April 10, 2017 at 11:33 am

      @A You might want to recalibrate your sarcasm meter, because it’s not reading correctly. @Shaun was making a joke, get it?

      • Shaun Reply
        April 10, 2017 at 11:48 am

        Yes, I was making a joke. I also agree the leggins thing was blown out of proportion and UA was correct in making the buddypass flyer change or not fly. Where they were wrong was their robotic twitter responses that basically said “our CoC allows us to do whatever the f%&# we please”.

        I also agree the guy, when met by my city’s finest, should have left the plane. I do think UA should have increased the offer and included some cash to cover a rental car. There’s no reason they couldn’t have upped it to a $1200 voucher + $200 cash for a rental car to get people to bite. Sure it makes that flight less profitable for UA, but at some point saying f-u to the customer will be less profitable too. But no matter what is going on, a passenger should not be pulled from a plane bloodied up. Period.

        I guarantee you the extra voucher/$$$ it would have taken to get 2 people to bite will be < than the legal fees/settlement this guy is going to get.

        So many of these situations that become national news/internet viral sensations that involve airlines could be prevented if the company (and in many cases the customers involved) used some common sense.

  4. Jason Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 11:29 am

    The flight was oversold. So this is all United’s management’s fault for being so greedy and overselling flights all the time – they clearly couldn’t care less about their passengers and only about their profits.
    Filling the plane is absolutely priority #1 and their customers who paid for their tickets in good faith will be violently removed if necessary so that United (and the other carriers) can maximize their profits and the bonuses for the top management.
    In my opinion this is similar in principal to the top management at Wells Fargo who pursued profits so strongly that customers got treated badly.
    There is no need to ever oversell a plane. When all the tickets have been sold, why not just put people on waiting lists for cancellations???????

  5. Roger B Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 11:55 am

    Forget the doctor aspect of this case. As if his title ‘entitles’ him. I’ll wait until more information comes out. I have a hunch though that this doctor felt entitled (his immigration status is not known, but he is said to be Asian, and from the looks of the video South Asian) so I think this might be a case of cultural behavior. If this is an Indian then I’m not surprised. Please google Indian Member of Parliament causes problem on plane in India. This is all part and parcel of the Hindu caste system. Why did the other passengers who had to leave not cause a scene? I’m siding with United on this until I know otherwise. There’s more to this story than one video of a screaming man dragged out of a private aircraft with rules to follow, the rules of carriage.

    • nl Reply
      April 10, 2017 at 1:51 pm

      Roger B. Let’s not make this about race, please.

      First, entitlement knows no bounds – it exists in all cultures, hence the reason why in English we have the word “entitlement”. If you believe that the man is entitled, then by all means call him just “entitled” (and kindly supply concrete reasons why you think he is so), and not “entitled…this is all part and parcel of the Hindu caste system”. You’re making a correlation/causation argument based on “I have a hunch”. You’re now influencing people’s perceptions of this group, and particularly people who may have zero interaction with South Asians, Indians, or Hindus.

      Second, if you’re asking us to suspend judgment on how his profession influenced the situation – “I’ll wait until more information comes out” – I’d ask the same of you. Please “wait until more information comes out” regarding his reasons for refusing to be deboarded. We don’t even know if he’s South Asian yet (“from the looks of the video South Asian”), and even if so, it may have nothing to do with how he reacted.

      Third, I think it’s absolutely relevant that he’s a doctor. While my profession (business strategy) has implications on how a company thrives long-term, his profession as a physician probably has a more immediate effect on his patients’ health and well being.

  6. AB Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    I’m not an expert, but with hindsight being 20/20, couldn’t UA have just bought the staff tickets on a competing airline?

    If they were offering 4 X $800 and 4 X hotel, surely it would have been cheaper.

  7. nl Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    Roger B. Let’s not make this about race, please.

    First, entitlement knows no bounds – it exists in all cultures, hence the reason why in English we have the word “entitlement”. If you believe that the man is entitled, then by all means call him just “entitled” (and kindly supply concrete reasons why you think he is so), and not “entitled…this is all part and parcel of the Hindu caste system”. You’re making a correlation/causation argument based on “I have a hunch”. You’re now influencing people’s perceptions of this group, and particularly people who may have zero interaction with South Asians, Indians, or Hindus.

    Second, if you’re asking us to suspend judgment on how his profession influenced the situation – “I’ll wait until more information comes out” – I’d ask the same of you. Please “wait until more information comes out” regarding his reasons for refusing to be deboarded. We don’t even know if he’s South Asian yet (“from the looks of the video South Asian”), and even if so, it may have nothing to do with how he reacted.

    Third, I think it’s absolutely relevant that he’s a doctor. While my profession (business strategy) has implications on how a company thrives long-term, his profession as a physician probably has a more immediate effect on his patients’ health and well being.

  8. H Mercer Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 3:39 pm

    I’m not an aviation expert, but as I see it, the problem stems from the industry wide policy of over selling flights, a policy designed to keep planes full and maximize profits for the airline. A “passenger/customer first” policy, while a necessity for other businesses dependent on customer goodwill for support, went by the wayside long ago with the airline industry. It sometimes seems to me that often 2 or more airlines covering the same route will quietly create little monopolies so that none of them have empty flights and all of them can keep fare costs up. Couple this with a general decline in civility and increase in feelings of entitlement throughout society. Not sure if United was offering $cash or vouchers for tickets within the continental U.S. Vouchers are almost impossible to redeem with all the blackout dates … from my experience, much harder to redeem than even frequent flyer miles. Certainly everyone here concerned could have behaved better. Usually (but not always), you do catch more bees with honey.

  9. H F Reply
    April 10, 2017 at 3:48 pm

    I’m not an aviation expert, but as I see it, the problem stems from the industry wide policy of over selling flights, a policy designed to keep planes full and maximize profits for the airline. A “passenger/customer first” policy, while a necessity for other businesses dependent on customer goodwill for support, went by the wayside long ago with the U. S. airline industry. It sometimes seems to me that often 2 or more airlines covering the same route will quietly create little monopolies so that none of them have empty flights and all of them can keep fare costs up. Couple this with a general decline in civility and increase in feelings of entitlement throughout society. Not sure if United was offering $cash or vouchers for tickets within the continental U.S. Vouchers are almost impossible to redeem with all the blackout dates … from my experience, much harder to redeem than even frequent flyer miles. Certainly everyone here concerned could have behaved better. Usually (but not always), you do catch more bees with honey.

  10. old school Reply
    April 11, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    I’m with United on this one. Kudos to protecting their passengers from some guy who obviously has severe mental issues….supposing they had asked him to buckle his seat belt ??? What happened to prevent this nutcase from discussing the accommodations with the personnel assigned to handle this matter in a civilized manner ? Nothing- evidently except this nut either forgot to take his meds and decided to revert to the 3 year old behavior level. At least the guy exposed himself as a fool… where’s his name and address though?

    • Dee Reply
      April 13, 2017 at 12:08 pm

      Dude are you alright? There’s nothing wrong with the passenger. Not a nutcase nor a fool. It sounds like you have a beef with the United PR nightmare and try to smear the passenger further more. It’s not gonna help. In fact it will worsen the situation.

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