2:00PM ET: Updated with comment from United Airlines, longer video
A United Airlines employee and a passenger were captured on video fighting at a Newark Liberty International Airport airport check-in desk, with both men exchanging blows and the United employee, though bloody, coming back for more.
Fist Fight Between United Airlines Employee And Passenger At Newark Airport
Here’s a look the undated video that first appeared on Instagram and currently appears to be our most complete record of the event:
An earlier version omitted the important first few seconds:
Here’s a longer version of the video; however, it doesn’t show how the altercation between the passenger and boarding agent started. pic.twitter.com/TmT27S5e2C
— Done Caring (@GiftedPrude) May 23, 2022
It shows:
- The employee threw the first punch (or slap)
- The passenger retaliated
- A fight ensued
- It is unclear what occurred before the video began
But it still isn’t clear what caused the fight. It isn’t clear if earlier punches were thrown or even when this happened, either, though it was posted on Instagram Sunday afternoon.
From what I can gather, this is a United Ground Express (UGE) agent at Newark Airport (I recognize the check-in area). UGE is a subsidiary of United Airlines. Those employees assist United check-in agents with luggage tagging and handling.
United Airlines has only issued a cautionary statement on the incident:
“United Airlines does not tolerate violence of any kind at our airports or on board our planes, and we are working with local authorities to further investigate this matter.”
It’s sad example that United, like any company, is only as strong as its weakest link. The company has made such monumental strides in transforming its culture over the last few years. Employee morale is up. Just last week United Airlines launched its first national ad campaign in a decade, entitled, “Good Leads The Way.”
And now, as you read this, the C-level team has likely hastily assembled an emergency meeting with the PR team to discuss damage control for this incident, which will be lampooned across late night television and make headlines around the world. This incident will be the mocking new face of “Good Leads The Way.” David Dao will be invoked.
It doesn’t matter who started it. United lost. It has already lost.
United’s best way to handle this is not to blame the passenger, even if he holds 90% of the blame. Instead, United’s best response is to state:
Whatever the context, we hold our employees to higher standards. The employee has been terminated. We do not tolerate violence at United Airlines.
Here’s the thing: this wasn’t self-defense any way you cut it. People don’t just get upset and I’m going to speculate here. I bet the passenger was horribly rude. Check out the huge piece of luggage in the video. Perhaps there was an overweight fee involved. Perhaps that surprised the passenger and he said some nasty things to the United employee. Maybe some profanity or even some racial stuff.
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
There can be no claiming of self-defense when you have ample time to walk away safely. “Stand your ground” is not a defense. Whatever happened before the video started recording, the United agent could have walked away and called the police. Instead, he chose to fight.
Even if he was subject to absolutely disgusting abuse, he’s the one wearing the uniform and he must be held to a higher standard. He must be terminated. United must condemn his behavior with no caveats.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines faces a PR disaster with a new video of United Ground Express employee fighting with a passenger at Newark Airport. It must react swiftly in condemning the conduct of its employee…there is no other way forward.
Just to let you know this employee is not a mainline United employee, but instead works for a contract subsidiary company. You are able to tell by the uniform differences. Either way everyone involved seems more than wrong.
Did you see what I wrote above? I made that very clear.
I’m tired of people saying the worker needs to be held to a higher standard! NO!!! They should not be in this day and age. They have every right to stand up for themselves. People are ignorant, selfish, violent and disrespectful!! NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THAT FROM ANYONE!!!! He wanted a wheelchair to move his luggage. LAZY SOB!!! Those are for people needing to transport themselves!!! Leave them alone!!
I respectfully disagree, but you are not alone.
Once you put that uniform on and punch in you are no longer representing yourself you are now representing United Airlines. Matthew Klint is 100% correct, headlines around the world are once again talking about United Airlines in an unflattering light. All the progress United has made through the pandemic to improve its reputation has gone up in smoke over this one incident. I was watching the news earlier today and one of the anchors briefly compared this current video to another infamous United video Dr. Dao. No one cares how this started what they are talking about is the fact that a United Employee punched a passenger when all that employee had to do was walk away.
Sorry Dave Rex you’re wrong. Dealing with difficult customers is part of the job (and many other jobs). I worked in many low paid jobs in my youth where the occasional customer treated me like garbage. You suck it up, you don’t take it on yourself to teach them a lesson. If we head down the path of people taking into their own hands to defend their pride on the job site, we will not see any reduction in the incidence of bad passengers, but we will see a lot more physical altercations that do nothing but create havoc for everyone else. We’ve come a long way from the era of compulsive defense of male pride with violence. We don’t want to go back.
If the other employees did not immediately call the police, should they be fired, too? Good thing it was on a flight because United bans videos in flight. Just ask Matthew and how he was humiliated and kicked off a flight.
This is what i am talking about. We need more of this, so travel will once again be more interesting.
Black women fight best, pulling each other’s hair and pounding each other. Fun to watch, and free entertainment.
Whatever the context or “explanation” for this incident, it is the opposite of deescalation. The UGE employee really seems primed to fight and keeps coming back, even after being knocked down. And it’s pretty clearly not his first fight. The customer is not always right and this customer may have been horrible, although given this agent’s aggressiveness it does make me wonder who raised the stakes verbally before it came to blows.
I’m curious if we watched the same video? The employee struck the passenger first. The passenger then retaliated…… they were both in each other’s faces neither was right but regardless violence is never the answer.
Yes, the newest video out is a few seconds later and appears to show the employee slapping the passenger first.
Yeah I seen the video you are talking about and it shows the employee striking first this video just shows it being cutoff to the point where it only shows the passenger starting, so Racism in this article trying to put the blame on the actual victim.
Right, the latest video shows the fight already in progress, but the employee throwing the first slap.
that actually is not the full video. the employee slapped the passenger twice. your video starts off after the first slap. TMZ posted the longer video. I suggest you do better.
This TMZ video?
The passenger, ex-NFL player Brendan Langley, was arrested. I’m not sure that was appropriate if he did not throw the first punch/slap.
EXACTLY. The UA employee struck first in the video you replied with. People get arrested all the time for inappropriate reasons. People beat those charges all the time too. It does not matter if it was appropriate or not so your statement “I’m not sure that was appropriate if he did not throw the first punch/slap” is not only irrelevant but holds no merit. You are calling a man guilty before he has a day in court when you have more evidence that he was a victim than you have evidence that he was the aggressor. Not only did he use reasonable force against the employee but he stopped at one point, which is when the was hit again by the employee. The employee was the aggressor in this situation and it is clear as day to see that. I’ll be back to respond to this lame editorial or whatever you call this pathetic blog thing when all charges against the passenger are dropped and after he wins a settlement against UA under the doctrine of respondeat superior. DO BETTER.
You seen it? Seent it? Read a book, dummy.
Everyone who takes a job at an airport should do so with the expectation of daily verbal abuse from the passengers. You have to wonder what extra special nastiness it takes to get someone who is used to such verbal abuse to start fighting.
If you throw the first punch at me, I will fight back. to the end. Its never OK for the customer to throw a punch. He needs to be arrested and prosecuted. We know that won’t happen. Equity, right?
I hope the United employee gets a very large settlement.
Wow. Why will you fight to the end?
Spot on. Completely asinine to suggest the UA employee bears ANY responsibility for this. The pax swung first. End of discussion IMO.
Are you serious? Crazy display of “manhood” is really a display of pathetic weakness.
You’re no journalist…you’re just some opinionated talking head who just talks trash. Your pathetic weakness is not even having a serious lack of “manhood”, it’s a serious lack of even having “womanhood”. You write this garbage piece and site things like racism (trying to paint some narrative like the worker was being racist towards this poor, marginalized, POC who’s just a victim of society)….I’m very sure the attacker DID say racist things to the worker, not the other way around. He is the problem, not the person who was struck (who is actually the victim) even if he did fight back. Have you ever even been punched in the face? Nah…of course not, cause if you did get punched it’s a guarantee YOU would cower and crawl into a ball like a little b*tch. You’re nothing but a keyboard warrior who spews false narratives and tries to bend and manipulate the truth. You’re a race baiter and if this had been a white man attacking the worker he would have been “an evil white supremacist”….but no, because he was black HE is ACTUALLY the victim right??? Nah…see it’s people like you who have ruined anything good in society by defending CRIMINALS who are NOT held accountable for their actions, regardless of their color. It’s a shock to me to even think that some company pays you for your supposed “journalism”….you’re better suited to be a urinal cleaner. Clown.
You never actually read what I wrote.
Take a deep breath. Try again.
amen to that. Well stated.
Gophuck, there are places to help people going through whatever messy thing it is that you’re going through. Get some help.
Racist [redacted]!! Let’s see your “educated response” after getting slapped in the face by a UA TICKET AGENT!
Anyone who has flown United knows there are some passengers who really do need to be punched in the face.
#ThereIsaidIt
I doubt that this will get much in the way of late night fodder or stir up much. It’s getting so commonplace now that it’s just become routine. So what, another fight at an airport. David Dao became so big because it was so unusual at the time. We just didn’t see people dragged off planes like that. Now? Yawn.
Rather than being news or fodder to attack United it’s more of yet another example of how our society in the past few years has lost its collective minds. Sad.
At least Santastico can’t blame it on masking, lol.
And the violence and fighting continues….even after passengers are no longer required to wear a mask. So how are the ‘Republicans’ going to spin this as they continue to normalize random everyday violence. No punches would have been thrown if the passenger could have had his gun? Or this wouldn’t have happened if gate agents were allowed to carry guns?
Drip, drip, drip….as the ignorant and uneducated American public is too focused on Instagram or the Kardashians to realize that the violence and hostility are now acceptable behavior.
Does anyone really think either of these goons will go to jail? Yet soon a woman could be jailed if she attempts to exert control over her own body…..you can’t make this s$%# up!
You must be really excited for monkey pox! I’ll be that you already have a new set of masks on order and you’re putting up the decorations as I type this!
United is nothing more than a ghetto airline. Period. Full stop. They can shove their new lounges and “impressive new fleet “, if they even ever get new deliveries or was a hoax as well, up their asses. Kirby is nothing more than a corrupt and pathological liar, everything is hyperbole with him. Kutbacks, Kutbacks, Kutbacks, 5 or six years down the road type of guy. He should marry Sara Nelson, a match made in heaven, no joke!
Stand your ground IS a defense and should be. In my opinion he would have been fine shooting the customer in the legs first and if he kept coming, finishing him off.
Anyone that hits someone first deserves anything they get. No pity for him.
Sadly the employee will lose his job because an idiot didn’t like him doing his job.
Yea if this was in florida the agent could have filled the customer with bullets and probably would been given a prominent position in the DeSantis administration as a reward for his courage
I was not dismissing stand your ground as a legal doctrine, but pointing out that this is NJ not FL…there is no stand your ground law on the books.
Even in NJ, there is no duty to “retreat to the wall” when physically attacked. I don’t know where you are getting this from, Mr. Klint.
I think the United agent showed a lot of heart and should be viewed as an inspirational figure. Suddenly foisted into a battle that he did not choose, against an opponent with a significant height, reach, and apparently, age advantage, he bravely took the fight back to the bully. We need more of this.
No, he had a duty to retreat and furthermore, he threw the first punch according to the most complete video we currently have.
This is the most “complete” video found so far and does show the employee taking the first swing/slap (not to say there wasn’t even more prior to this). But either way, agreed that United has a PR nightmare to deal with.
Yes, this is a PR nightmare indeed.
From what I saw in the news and was told that the airlines ask for the wheelchair that the customer was using for his luggage. He refused to give it up. Who does he think he is that he can use it. Disabled people need them. No excuse for both of them. But the airlines or person was probably has the job to take disabled person to their gate.
Why does this writer have a job if he can’t get the basic facts of this story right? He’s even in the comments trying to defend it instead of a retraction and a rewrite wtf?
The longer video came out after the post was published and after the comments began. We still don’t know how it began. Thanks for reading!
Unless you are a child, it is amazing to me that you don’t already know the answers to your questions.
Little [redacted] needs to be in jail for a long time. He should have been stomped on till he stopped breathing.
As an Emergency Room physician I see our staff frequently assaulted by patients. It’s a typical day in service economy America. I’ve been recommending that our physicians & nurses carry tasers to defend themselves. Perhaps all working Americans in service jobs need to tase-up. Born & raised in Europe, I have evolved to maintain low expectations of Americans.
Really? Airline employees are to stand and let passengers slap them around??? Employees can’t defend themselves? Why are airline employees supposed to just let people spit, punch and slap them without defending themselves??? One reason please.
Because that’s what cops are for. Walk away and call the police. Problem solved.
Calling the cops could easily get someone shot and killed…for what???
I saw somewhere that a United spokesman recently stated that the employee has been terminated
Update….the attacker is a former NFL player.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-nfl-player-arrested-allegedly-brawling-united-airlines-employee?dicbo=v2-7174eccf87fc3c8861b2d3408a910977
And United has fired the employee as well, according to TMZ. I’ll have a full update tomorrow as more facts emerge.
Matthew-I saw several other posts on social media saying the Airline employee is also black (light skinned) so not thinking race had anything to do with it. I also read the NFL player slapped the employee first and that wasn’t shown on video. Don’t know if any of that is true-they both behaved horribly. But why was the airline employee not also arrested? I’m interested to know more.
The truth will come out. Thanks for your comment.
Nice. I’m looking forward to the part where people hold you accountable for details that emerge after that write up comes out.
Attacker? If the employee punched him first how is the former NFL player the attacker?
What does that have to do with anything
I always find it amazing how no matter what story ever gets posted once a black person is involved they are always the aggressor, the monster , the bad guy. Believe it or not Black people get mistreated and disrespected a lot more by the color of their skin on a very daily basis and that’s BEFORE that’s idiot whoever they might be realizes that the person they came into contact with is some kind of celebrity or so . Reading these comments are so amusing because Dr. Dao was in the wrong until people found out later just what possessions he held and his kids held and he wiped the hell out of United. Sad to say that alot of you who have so much pride in these staff workers who feel like they are in charge with their 14.00 an hour job back them up but the question is never “ what makes people feel comfortable even putting their hands on someone in the first place “ why did this agent feel safe doing that ? BECAUSE HE HAS DONE THIS TYPE OF STUFF BEFORE! Wait until they ( the monsters lawyers ) pull his files , ask yourself why is he not working for mainline ?
Pax is said to be an ex-pro football player. They are taught how to speak and act because of media coverage when they are hired for a pro team. He should have known better than to act the opposite here. The contracted agent wouldn’t be so stupid to incite any 1st strike unless provoked. My 30 years as an employee of ual as purser on our aircraft.,a former athlete , a martial arts practioner, and an Asian man I’ve seen it all. Review pax history prior to this scene then get back to me. You’ll be singing a different song. Aloha
the altercation started when the customer began to use a wheelchair as a baggage cart, as there was none available. The agent proceeded to inform the pax to please no use a wheelchair as a baggage cart… the passenger immediately went off on him…
Those luggage carts are running $5 at EWR now. I don’t blame Langley for getting creative with a wheelchair. It’s not easy to get by on an NFL salary.
really?? using a wheelchair as a luggage cart… I dont give a rate-ass how much they cost… especially him as an ex-football player that he’s got plenty of $$… pathetic both of you for thinking it’s acceptable.
I’m laughing at people who can’t recognize irony and sarcasm. If it helps, I thought it was funny, Mitch!
He is a baggage handler (only), paid by a third-party vendor, not United Airlines. United needs to distinguish these vendors – by not allowing their employees to wear deceptive, “look-alike” uniforms. If he was wearing green with a “XYZ airport services” label, no one would have assumed he “worked for” United. But alas, the airlines want to hire the cheapest vendors they can find without paying the salary, benefits and at the same time allow these employees to look like they actually work for United.
Same thing with the Dr. Dao incident – it was all framed in a United Express scenario and carried out by airport police, none of whom were people paid by United Airlines.
IMO, the main thing that got United boycotted for the Dao incident wasn’t the incident itself, since that is something that can happen on any airline. Rather, United responded improperly (leaked emails and a botched press statement). This time, everything will again depend on how United responds. The employee got fired, so that’s a good start, But time will tell on what the press statements or any emails will say.
Did you read the story? He works for a United subsidiary. He’s still a United employee, just a low paid one.
Did anyone press charges? The baggage handler will lose his job (at the insistence of United Airlines to his boss, the vendor). I’m sure the guy doesn’t give a rat’s pidelka if he loses his $8/hour job.
Why is nearly every commenter picking sides? What I understand from the reports and video is that a passenger attempted to or was in the process of using a wheelchair to transport his luggage. While it was certainly within the UA employee’s rights and perhaps his job responsibility to educate the passenger of the intended purpose of a wheelchair I’m sure in prime airline employee form he overstepped the boundaries of civil dialogue and belittled the passenger which obviously didn’t go over well. A that point either man could have chosen to stop it there but both decided to escalate it and were willing participants in the physical altercation.
So I ask again why are people taking sides? On one side is a professional athlete that has no shame using a wheelchair to ease his stroll through the airport at the possible expense of the elderly and handicapped. The other side is a person who appears to be antagonizing a customer. Who wants to be aligned with the behavior of either of these two men?
I can’t help to feel if both men were the same color more of us would call it for what it actually was, two men acting poorly.
Black Lives Matter. So whaddya expect?