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Home » United Airlines » New Details Emerge About United Airlines Brawl In Newark
United Airlines

New Details Emerge About United Airlines Brawl In Newark

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 24, 2022November 14, 2023 37 Comments

two men hugging in an airport

Yesterday, I covered the bloody brawl that took place between a United Airlines baggage assistant and a passenger at Newark Liberty International Airport. New details have emerged that are worth considering.

In This Post:

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  • New Details Emerge About United Airlines Newark Brawl
    • 1. The incident occurred on May 19, 2022
    • 2. The passenger was former NFL player Brendan Langley
    • 3. The conflict was over the use of a wheelchair to transport luggage
    • 4. The United employee has been fired
    • 5. Langley was arrested and charged with assault
    • 6. Langley plans to sue United Airlines
  • Additional Observations
    • Why did no other United employees step in?
    • United has handled this well so far.
    • Cowards fight back when there are better solutions.
  • CONCLUSION

New Details Emerge About United Airlines Newark Brawl

1. The incident occurred on May 19, 2022

It wasn’t clear, based upon the video, when this incident occurred. It took place on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

2. The passenger was former NFL player Brendan Langley

Brendan Langley, 27, formerly played in the NFL for the Denver Broncos. He currently is a wide receiver in the Canadian Football League, playing for the Calgary Stampeders.

3. The conflict was over the use of a wheelchair to transport luggage

We now know what triggered the incident. The agent and passenger got into a fight over the use of a wheelchair to transport luggage.

A friend of Langley said United “instructed” him to use a wheelchair:

United instructed him to use a wheelchair to carry his luggage because they were out of their normal dollys . The employee that got beat up chased him down saying he couldn’t use it and then tried to physically remove it from Brendan’s hands which led to the fight.

— Su’a (@iammsuzy) May 23, 2022

I doubt it. I strongly doubt it.

Wheelchairs are for disabled passengers, not to transport luggage. Even so, the United employee did not need to start yelling and physically chasing after Langley over the inappropriate use of the wheelchair.

4. The United employee has been fired

United released a statement yesterday condemning violence and noting that the employee had been terminated (precisely as I suggested). He still has not been identified, though.

United Airlines does not tolerate violence of any kind at our airports or on board our planes and we are working with local authorities in their investigation of this matter. United Ground Express informed us that the employee has been terminated.

United Ground Express is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Airlines.

5. Langley was arrested and charged with assault

Law enforcement were called and Langley was arrested and charged with assault. It isn’t clear why he was the only one arrested if the United employee began the incident.

6. Langley plans to sue United Airlines

Langley is lawyering up, with plans to sue United Airlines for assault and TMZ for defamation.

Anyone have any solid legal counsel? My boy @trllang looking to sue @united for assault by an employee, @EWRairport for illegally arresting him without mirandizing him and holding him against his will, as well as @TMZ for defamation and slander! SMH https://t.co/JUeFXby3yO

— Su’a (@iammsuzy) May 23, 2022

He should not waste his time with TMZ.


> Read More: Bloody Brawl Between United Airlines Employee And Customer At Newark Airport


Additional Observations

Why did no other United employees step in?

When you ask why no other United employees interceded to try to break up the fight, you come to two possible conclusions, as far as I can see. One, they were too afraid and that reflects poorly on them. Two, they saw their colleague had “picked” the fight and had no desire to even get scratched upon his behalf.

United has handled this well so far.

When it came to David Dao, the problem was less the incident itself and more United’s response to it. United blamed the passenger and refused to take responsibility for its contract staff. Here, United has forcefully condemned violence and the employee has been promptly terminated.

I don’t think any fact can come out to paint the employee in a good light when he chose to escalate the problem rather than de-escalate. As a result, I think United made the right move in terminating him.

Cowards fight back when there are better solutions.

Ok, this is a controversial one, I know, but hear me out. I’m not a pacifist. I believe in self-defense and am a strong proponent of the castle doctrine (you can repel any invader into your home, even with lethal force). But this was not self-defense. Watch the video. Even if we don’t have the entire sequence, we can see that the employee was not in any danger and could have easily walked away and summoned law enforcement. Instead, he chose to get in the face of Langley and fight back. That’s weakness (pride), not strength.

CONCLUSION

There are still unanswered questions. Who was the United employee? Was it words or was it simply the use of the wheelchair that triggered the action? But we now know a lot more than we did yesterday and I cannot say the emerging facts put either man in a better light.

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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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37 Comments

  1. James Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 11:18 am

    “Two, they saw their colleague had “picked” the flight and had no idea to even get scratched upon his behalf.”
    I’m unclear how to interpret the second half of this sentence. I think it simply doesn’t make sense.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 11:38 am

      Desire, not idea.

  2. William Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 11:43 am

    The United agent looks like Sal from “Impractical Jokers” – at first I thought maybe Murr and Q were feeding him lined from the next counter…

  3. Christian Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    It’s odd and seems rather contradictory that you espouse non-escalation in this as the brave and correct course of action to take as there was no imminent danger yet you’ve specifically said that you’d mega escalate a situation on a plane where there was no imminent danger by pouring scalding coffee on the person behind you because the person’s knee was pressed into your reclined seat. You probably don’t see a drastic double standard here so what am I missing?

    • Courtney Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 12:15 pm

      Christian, don’t be so naive: there are no standards in society today.

      • Christian Reply
        May 24, 2022 at 12:30 pm

        I disagree and Matthew is generally pretty logical. I may disagree with him but I figure at a minimum he deserves to be heard.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 2:18 pm

      Temped as I would be to pour hot coffee or red wine on an idiot seatmate, I’d like to think that self-control and discipline would prevail and I would not return evil for evil.

  4. GetReal Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    Quit referring to him as a gate agent. He’s not

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 12:47 pm

      Huh?

      • Christian Reply
        May 24, 2022 at 1:03 pm

        Ticketing agent.

  5. William Robert Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 1:04 pm

    A united employee fought with a passenger, knowing that is it a stretch to believe another united employee told him to push his luggage on a wheelchair?

  6. john Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 1:34 pm

    Does anyone actually have video showing that Brandon was acting in self defense? The only video I’ve seen suggesting this, was edited. But I’ve seen longer clips, suggesting Brandon initiated first contact.

    So..are there any, even LONGER, clips again showing Brandon as a victim?

  7. Random gawande Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    The charges for luggage carts is a scam. And always in liberal cities. Sfo charges $8 for a few yards of use from baggage claim through customs to the gate outside where people are waiting. Just a couple of hundred feet max. On the other hand Dallas had free carts. Liberal cities just try to squeeze money out of you every which way.

    But why punch a gate agent? If the guy had punched a liberal politician i would have enjoyed watching the video more.

    • billy jo Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 2:03 pm

      My impression is that this is a bot reply designed to inject negative political views into any subject and it is silly too

      • William Robert Reply
        May 24, 2022 at 9:42 pm

        I think someone typed in the wrong shtick name when posting

        • Random gawande Reply
          May 25, 2022 at 2:24 am

          No. I am not like the trump apologists that love to get down on their knees and kiss his ass, while he molests their daughters. I do not have blind loyalty.

          Liberal politicians are no paragon of virtues. All liberal cities have very high cost of living and extremely bad social problems. Extremely high baggage cart rates is one such issue. And in my experience only liberal cities are plagued by it. There is no reason for it except to squeeze desperate passengers. Parking costs is another. San francisco has high parking costs, but liberal politicans don’t make public transportation efficient and timely. Or not even clean. It is overrun with homeless people. Liberals politician should have to ride public transportation for their commutes. They decree crap affects people’s lives and make themselves exempt from it.

  8. pelican55 Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    Even if a customer assaults an airline employee first, you NEVER EVER strike back. This gives you ammunition to sue the customer and file charges against them for assault. Period.

    • PolishKnight Reply
      May 25, 2022 at 10:38 am

      Agreed. The airport has cameras and “retaliation” can include denying the passenger boarding. I don’t think the video shows how the fight started so if the employee was hit first, that may explain why only the NFL player was charged (it’s mostly about who makes first contact.)

      Regarding the lawsuit: Sadly, even though in theory the NFL player’s lawsuit may have no merit if he did strike first and improperly used a wheelchair, the sheister lawyer may try to extort something from United anyway due to the race of the plaintiff, political situation and publicity.

      Did we ever hear anything about the Dr. Farah Khan diaper-disposal incident on United? Somehow, these things tend to drop off the radar.

  9. Dave Edwards Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 3:07 pm

    “ its crazy how u can get assaulted by an actual airline employee and defend urself, but media will run the narrative that they want to… this is the problem in our society today smh dont believe everything u read!
    @TMZ
    tbh this is shitty of yall. taking another mans pain as a joke”

    I just glad to see Brenden is using his college education to properly explain the situation. I’m sure he has a bright future in Corporate America and will present himself well during an interview.

    Lamar University should use him to promote their educational excellence.

  10. Roland Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    What happened to bonus points and mileage runs … 🙂

    • Roland Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 3:44 pm

      … not to mention error fares and gold status shortcuts.

      Those were the days. Alas …

  11. Donald Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    The employee was just exercising his due diligence as a “Karen” since that has been the thing to do

  12. Mike Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 4:42 pm

    The video I saw showed the United employee being punched by the customer first, then the employee lost his cool (like most ppl) and struck back. Hope the employee retains legal counsel. Is there a more extensive video that shows otherwise?

    • Markiest Bookman Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 11:29 pm

      STFU LYING FAGGET, HE CLEARLY SLAPPED HIM FIRST DUMMY. Watch full video racist fag

      • JorgeGeorge Paez Reply
        May 25, 2022 at 12:03 am

        You just lost all credibility.
        Good luck finding it.
        You obviously are a violent Negro…..

  13. UAL jetset Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 5:13 pm

    Thank you Mike, I agree with your interpretation, Pax clearly in the wrong,,look at the size of the bag,,,and the ex employee should get his job back, with PC training to defuse future incidents….

  14. Sam Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 7:41 pm

    Someone who works for an airline always pops in with the “TA/GA/FA is right no matter what” comment… We don’t need to be told. Anyone who flys Big 3 US domestic with any frequency knows that airline employees think the customer is wrong no matter what & it keeps showing up over & over & over again. #racetothebottom

  15. Fix Your Grammar Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 7:45 pm

    I think the author meant he’s a strong proponent,, not component.

  16. YULtide Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 8:01 pm

    @Matthew, much though I appreciate your blog, you need a proofreader.

    “He still as not been identified, though.”

    *has*

    “Two, they saw their colleague had “picked” the flight”

    *fight*

    “I believe in self-defense and am a strong component of the castle doctrine”

    *proponent*

  17. Hashi Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    Matthew needs a proofreader on everything, every day, on every article. It’s rare to see any of the blog appear without at least 3-4 grammatical errors, often even more like today. Punctuation as well. Glad I’m not the only one who sees these.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 24, 2022 at 9:03 pm

      Today was particularly bad – my apologies.

      I’m worse than Gary Leff! 😉

      • YULtide Reply
        May 25, 2022 at 6:51 am

        Though to your credit you do respond when errors are pointed out and fix them.

  18. Markiest Bookman Reply
    May 24, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    GTFO TALKING ABOUT COWARDS SHOULDNT FIGHT BACK FIND BETTER SOLUTIONS… THE UNITED WORKER IS COWARD FOR TOUCHING HIM AND Making a big deal over simple wheelchair. THATS WHY HE LOST HIS JOB. Bc he simply could have avoided the whole situation

  19. Nate nate Reply
    May 25, 2022 at 9:23 am

    Please ask Ben whether weakness and pride are synonyms. Pride month starts in just 6 days.

    I’m sure that’s not what you meant, but you should be more mindful of your language.

    • Joe Chivas Reply
      May 25, 2022 at 10:48 am

      Pride is the confidence and self-respect of a group, typically one that has been socially marginalized, on the basis of their shared identity, culture, and experience. It is the exact opposite of a weakness. Matthew should know better.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 25, 2022 at 10:58 am

      Oh goodness, I think it was incredibly clear I was not referring to “pride” in that way and if we are talking about Pride Month the P will be capitalized.

  20. Bonnie Hidinger Reply
    May 27, 2022 at 4:44 pm

    Perhaps the Agent has experienced a shortage of needed wheel chairs in the past. If a thoughtless passenger uses one for his luggage, this could exacerbate that situation. I’m wondering why a strong young ball player would need anything to transport his luggage!

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