How United could have avoided a PR nightmare

WASHINGTON — It didn’t have to happen.

United Airlines, now under withering criticism for forcibly ejecting passengers from a plane it overbooked, has argued it had to make room on a Chicago-to-Louisville flight for a crew needed elsewhere.

But according to a McClatchy review of the airline’s service schedule, the carrier could have put that crew on as many as three other United flights to Kentucky from Chicago the same evening. Or two flights on other airlines.

The incident sparked an international social media firestorm and eventually prompted Oscar Munoz, United’s chief executive, to issue multiple apologies after initially defending the actions of airline employees.

United had three additional flights from Chicago to Kentucky airports on Sunday night, including one directly to Louisville, where the crew needed to be.

The full, ultimately controversial flight was United 3411, scheduled to depart O’Hare Airport at 5:41 p.m. Sunday.

But according to United’s website, its next flight to Louisville from O’Hare, 4771, was scheduled to depart at 9 p.m.

Another two United flights to Lexington and Cincinnati depart about the same time.

In addition, American 3509 is scheduled to leave O’Hare an hour after United 3411’s scheduled departure time for Louisville. Southwest 4484 is to leave Chicago’s Midway Airport for Louisville at 9:50 p.m.

Rather than put these employees on those other flights, United chose to randomly kick four passengers off Flight 3411, including David Dao, a Kentucky doctor who airport police dragged forcibly off the plane as other passengers watched in horror, creating an international firestorm on social media.

It’s still not clear why United bumped the four passengers rather than use three alternative flights on its own schedule to accommodate the employees or why it didn’t consider using other carriers with direct flights to Louisville.

United didn’t respond to questions about the incident.

Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines pilot and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, the union that represents American’s pilots, said he carries other airlines’ employees on his flights “all the time.”

"It is not uncommon for a crew to be transported by another carrier when there are options available,” said Tajer, who has 25 years of commercial aviation experience.

Though Congress is on a spring recess through April 24, four top lawmakers from the Senate Commerce Committee wrote directly to Munoz on Tuesday asking what the airline could have done to avoid forcing the removal of passengers from a flight that was already boarded.