FILE PHOTO
By Canberk Yuksel
NEW YORK
Reactions continued to mushroom early Tuesday after an overbooked United Airlines flight manhandled a passenger and threw him off to make room for crew members.
A new Twitter hashtag, #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos, became a trending topic as users from around the world were outraged by the incident Sunday captured on video by mortified passengers.
“Volunteer, or we’ll make you volunteer”, one Twitter user wrote, captioning a gif that shows two actors gesturing death threats.
Another picture shared on the micro-blogging website depicts a United Airlines flight taking off, captioned, “If we cannot beat our competitors, we beat our customers.”
The videos shared online show airport security dragging a passenger from his seat on a flight from Chicago, Illinois to Louisville, Kentucky.
The disturbing episode began when the airline offered as much as $800 to passengers who would give up their seats, but not enough people volunteered, prompting a random selection, according to the United Airlines.
After three people agreed to leave, a passenger who identified himself as a doctor said he could not give up his seat because he had appointments to keep the following day.
Law enforcement was called in and forcibly removed the man, ignoring his screams and causing him to apparently hit his head on an armrest.
In the videos, one of the passengers is heard anxiously screaming: “No! This is wrong. Oh my God! Look at what you did to him.”
The doctor was reportedly allowed back on the plane and received first aid.
It is legal for airlines in the U.S. to overbook their flights, as a way of allowing companies to compensate for empty seats when prospective passengers change their mind.
But the violent treatment sparked international outrage, leading United Airlines to confirm the event and issue an apology.
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened,” CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement.
“We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation,” the statement added.
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