Videos has begun to circulate showing a man being beaten and dragged senselessly by airport security because he refused to give up his seat to a United Airlines employee.
The incident occurred Sunday just prior to flight take-off on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville. United Airlines announced to the seated passengers that four United Airlines employees were going to need to take that particular flight to Louisville in order to “catch a flight the next day,” and thus would need four passengers to give up their seats to for the United Airlines employees.
The airline initially offered displaced passengers $300 and a hotel stay and when nobody accepted, they upped the offer to $800 and a hotel stay. When neither of the offers were picked up by any of the passengers, United Airlines simply announced that they would randomly select four passengers who would be forced off the flight.
One of the passengers, however, refused to give up his seat, claiming that he was a doctor and had appointments with patients in Louisville the next day. Witnesses say the security official had thrown him “against the armrest before dragging him out of the plane.”
Passenger Audra Bridges uploaded video of the grisly incident to her personal Facebook account.
Another video from a different angle clearly shows the passenger was disoriented and bloodied after the ordeal:
@peopleteams @united @StoryArcCreativ @CNN @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/fxjcKZgweg
— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
A video uploaded moments later show the passenger returning to the airplane looking disoriented.
@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
Later, a video uploaded of the man’s state of delirium after having been faced with such a horrid ordeal surfaced, saying “Just kill me” over and over again.
#flythefriendlyskies @united no words. This poor man!! pic.twitter.com/rn0rbeckwT
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
United Airlines has since responded to the incident:
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
From the Courier Times:
The Chicago Department of Aviation said Monday afternoon that it had placed the security officer who pulled the man out of his seat on leave pending a “thorough review” of the situation. The aviation department said in an emailed statement that the incident wasn’t in accordance with its standard operating procedure and the officer’s actions “are obviously not condoned by the Department.”
Moore Law Firm’s take:
Although United Airlines is well within their rights to remove any passenger from an airplane, state laws protect consumers and citizens from undue and unnecessary use of force and violence while on their premises. Circumstances often differ between situations, however United Airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation could have conducted this exit in a much more appropriate and much less violent manner.