United Airlines Forcibly Removes Passenger from Flight

[Forty Two]

But the police operate on the presumption of unquestionable moral authority. Saying no to a request by police officer is generally considered intolerable.

Police, indeed, do not tolerate disobedience well.

[pErvinalia]

What a shocking tale of administrative incompetence and unprofessional behaviour. It would never happen in the Netherland!

Those Fokkers know how to run an airline.

Friend of mine was on his way back from NY when they made an announcement offering people cash to put it off. Nobody took the bait. The money went up by $50 every ten minutes or so. When it got to $400 and a hotel my mate took the offer, only to find that they couldn't get him on a flight for two days. He said he'd rather get back on the booked flight and went to sit down. One of the desk jockeys said he couldn't do that, that he'd agreed to take the money and that that constituted a contract. He said that they'd changed the deal on him and a heated discussion ensued, which ended with security being called and him being escorted to a small bare room and locked in. About an hour later a bloke in a suit came in started apologising to him; apologising for the misunderstanding; apologising for him being locked up; and offering $2000 and two nights in a moderately swanky hotel + meals. He said 'No problem' and signed a waiver. Sweet.

I was in one of those bidding processes once. It went up to about $600 and a hotel room, but I had to get home for a couple of different reasons and I had no choice. If I were younger, single, no kids, and such, I would have had no issue taking the deal.

That's the thing - the process for overbooking and buying passengers out is ingenious, and in the vast majority of circumstances it works out good for everyone. But, they have to do it before people are sitting in their seats. They have to do it at a time when they don't have to touch someone to get the process completed.

United's CEO in this case needs to step down just for his bullshit apology. He apologized for having to "re-accommodate these passengers" and then accused the 69 year old doctor, who did nothing but sit there and refuse to leave, of being belligerent and such. Carlos Munoz, man, that is a helluvalotta chutzpah there...

Sounds like a Mexican...

[Forty Two]

[Brian Peacock]

[Forty Two]

“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. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.”

— Oscar Munoz, Officialy United Airlines’ News Release, April 10, 2017

No apology for the beating and dragging. No apology for seating a guy and then forcibly removing him from the plane. Just an apology for "having" to "re-accommodate" - which, of course, they did not "have" to do - there were other options, like (a) driving the employees to the other airport, or (b) simply bought a ticket on a competitor's airline, and flown them that way, or (c) raised the buy-out offer $50 every 3 minutes until someone picked it up - someone would take a $1000 or $1500 to leave, and that would be peanuts compared to their losses now..., or (d) they could have simply let this guy alone and picked another sucker, who'd be too chickenshit disobey - like me, I'd be too chickenshit. Someone else on that plane would just get up, but egos must have gotten involved - this guy was given orders, and he doesn't get to not obey our orders....

[pErvinalia]

I'm surprised no one else offered to go in his place (with a little extra thrown in) once all the trouble started.

[pErvinalia]

[pErvinalia]

[Forty Two]

I'm surprised no one else offered to go in his place (with a little extra thrown in) once all the trouble started.

I think it moved to fast. First, on airplanes these days, people are basically frozen in their seats and taught to obey and shut up. Second, they were talking to him first, telling him to leave, and I bet most people figured that it was just talk - everybody was probably just like - what the hell is going on here? What is up with this? And, then third, as soon as a cop is beating and dragging the guy there really is no time or opportunity to intervene -- I mean, I might have yelled out "Wait wait! I'll leave! Let him alone! He can have my seat!" - but, in a high stress situation, I can't say as I'd blurt that out, and it's only a few seconds and the guy is already bloodied.

I'm surprised nobody wanted the $800 -- but, under the law of large numbers, there is bound to be a flight at some point where everybody has things going on that are worth more than $800 to them. I know that I would be champing at the bit to grab that, but with a wife and kids at home, it would be tough to say I'm just going to spend a night laying back in a hotel room watching hotel porn and counting my $800 while wifey is home with the kids....

This is the thing about it, though. I believe the involvement of the police should never have happened. At most, the police could be called to address illegal activity, of which there was none here. Unless someone can show me where it is "illegal" (a crime - a misdemeanor or felon) to disobey a United Airlines employee who tells you to get off a plane which you boarded legally, with a ticket, then this is a purely "civil matter." If the guy violated some law, like getting violent himself, or disturbing the cabin crew or something that actually is a violation, then that's one thing. But, sitting their saying "no, I won't get out of the seat" or words to that effect, is not wrong in any sense, especially the legal sense.

So, what legal options would the airline have? Well, they could fly to the destination with this guy in his seat, and they could send their employee on another mode of transportation. They could convince someone else to leave. Or, they could get their lawyer to file an action and get a court order directing this person to exit the airplane. Their affidavit would swear that they have a paying customer, with ticket, who was issued a boarding pass, and who was assigned a seat, and who was allowed to board, stow his luggage, and sit, and who was told to get off the plane to allow a United Airlines employee to sit for free, out of convenience to the airline, and therefore being in breach of no agreement, and violating no law, the court should order the man to leave. LOL.

At some point, I think, the airline has an obligation to honor its contract, just as the passengers must honor theirs.

[laklak]

Their stock has taken an $800,000,000 hit.

http://gizmodo.com/united-loses-800-mil ... socialflow

[Brian Peacock]

Them shareholders'll be dragging the CEO out of HQ by his wrists if that carries on.

[laklak]

Market capitalization loss now in excess of one BILLION dollars. That's one fuck of a lot of money. I'll bet the cost of chartering a fucking plane for their crew or hiring a limo for the 5 1/2 hour ride is looking pretty cheap right now.

As Bugs was wont to remake, "what a maroon".

[pErvinalia]

Their stock has taken an $800,000,000 hit.

http://gizmodo.com/united-loses-800-mil ... socialflow

Meh, it will be forgotten in a couple of weeks.

[Svartalf]

But the police operate on the presumption of unquestionable moral authority. Saying no to a request by police officer is generally considered intolerable.

Bugger the police, most LEOs are rotten idiots in the first place, at least in France and the US...

[Strontium Dog]

Technically the passenger who refused a request from the pilot to leave the plane is the one who broke the law.

Realistically, that's not going to matter a jot.