I’m ashamed, says airline boss as he offers apology

THE chief executive of United Airlines said he feels “shame and embarrassment” and promised that a passenger will never be dragged screaming from one of its planes again.

Oscar Munoz was pilloried for his initial response in which he backed staff after David Dao, 69, a doctor, was hauled off an overbooked flight by airport police in Chicago.

Amid a global backlash on social media and threats of boycotts by passengers, Mr Munoz went on US television to issue an unqualified apology.

“That is not who our family at United is,” he said. “This will never happen again on a United flight. That’s my promise. No one should ever be mistreated this way.

“We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off, to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger. I think my reaction to most issues is to get the facts and circumstances. But my initial words fell short of truly expressing the shame.”

Mr Munoz said there had been a “system failure” and that was his fault. An online petition calling for him to step down as chief executive of Ameri- ca’s third biggest airline had more than 45,000 signatures, but he refused to do so. He added: “We have not provided our front-line supervisors and managers and individuals with the proper procedures that would allow them to use their common sense.

“They all have an incredible amount of common sense and this issue could have been solved by that. This is on me. I have to fix that, and I think that’s something we can do.”

United last night announced it was offering to compensate all passengers on the flight equal to the cost of their tickets.

Video footage taken by other passengers showed Mr Dao being pulled from United Airlines Flight 3411 at O’Hare International Airport on Sunday.

He screamed but remained passive as he was hauled out of his window seat, across an arm rest, and down the aisle. At one point he said: “Just kill me. Kill me. I have to go home.”

United had sought four passengers to voluntarily leave the flight to make room for a travelling flight crew, offering up to $800 (£638) to relinquish a seat.

There were no takers and Vietnamese-born Mr Dao was then among four passengers selected at random by computer and asked to leave.

The others did, but he refused, saying he had patients to see in the morning in Kentucky, the flight’s destination.

According to Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure records, Mr Dao, who has a speciality in pulmonary disease, had his medical licence suspended in 2003 for allegedly writing fraudulent prescriptions. He got his medical licence back in 2015, allowing him to practice again.