The airline security dragged the passenger to make room for its own staff.
United Airlines has created bad headlines second time in less than a month, after it forced an Asian American doctor out of the cabin, citing an overbooked flight.
According to eyewitness records posted on Twitter, the doctor was returning home in Louisville, Kentucky, from Chicago on the United Flight 3411, when the security guards manhandled him, leaving him unconscious and bleeding.
In videos posted on social media by other passengers, the security staff of the airline is seen using force to remove the doctor who protested after being asked to disembark the flight. Some passengers on the flight can be heard asking the guards to leave the man alone but in vain.
One of video of the alleged incident, captured by a passenger, who later uploaded it on Twitter profile @Tyler_Bridges, indicates that the security officers manhandled the doctor before throwing him into the aisle of the flight and dragging him away.
A separate post of Bridges says the doctor was removed from the flight to accommodate additional crew of United Airlines who needed to get to Louisville.
According to United spokesperson Charlie Hobart, the flight was overbooked. “After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily.” he said. “We apologize for the overbook situation.”
In the video posed by Bridge on twitter, passengers can he heard screaming as the doctor is pulled and dragged off from his seat, with his shirt pulled up above his navel.
“No one volunteered (to leave), so @United decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife.” Jayse D. Anspach, another passenger of United Flight 3411 wrote on twitter.
He added: when the doctor refused to leave the flight, “a couple of airport security men forcefully pulled the doctor out of his chair and to the floor of the aisle.”
Anspach said the doctor’s face hit the hand rest of another seat during the fall and was bleeding from the mouth after which he became docile, and the security staff dragged him out.
The public relation officers of United Airlines are having a tough time after the latest incident. A few days ago, they had to deal with a similar public embarrassment when the airline staff refused to give boarding passes for two teenage girls citing improper dressing. The girls were wearing leggings. They couldn’t fly in the United flight from Denver to Minneapolis because of their form-fitting pants.
The airline later clarified that the girls were using the complimentary passes for employees or family members and they are subject to a dress code.
https://twitter.com/janene1102/status/851256721997787137
@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
https://twitter.com/janene1102/status/851256721997787137