Airlines overbook their flights on purpose, and often. They do this because of math and numbers, and it’s still not fair that they do it, to be honest.
What’s even less fair about an airline overbooking their flight? When that flight ends up full and passengers are forced to get off the plane so that the airline’s staff can get to their destination.
This happened yesterday on a United Airlines flight that was headed from Chicago’s O’Hare airport to Louisville, Kentucky.
The flight attendant got on the PA system and asked for volunteers to get off the flight to free up some seats. No one volunteered.
That’s when things went from annoying to disturbing.
Three security guards then came on to the plane and proceeded to assault a man who refused to leave his seat.
On the numerous videos that were captured, you can hear the man scream before he is yanked out of his seat and then dragged down the aisle of the plane.
Passengers that weren’t capturing the moment on video scolded the three heavies for what they were doing while a flight attendant acted like nothing was happening.
A passenger summarized the entire altercation on Twitter like this:
United Airlines’ official statement was:
“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.
We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities.”
The CEO of United Airlines added an additional statement:
We doubt this story will go quietly into the night.
@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
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[Source: Twitter]
