Flying worst class
A story that shows how bad air travel has gotten
So much for the friendly skies. United Airlines suffered a public-relations disaster when a passenger was forcibly dragged off a flight so the carrier could make room for its employees trying to make a connection — and the feds are now investigating the incident.
The booted passenger was caught on video kicking and screaming as he was hauled off Louisville, Ky.-bound Flight 3411 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport Sunday.
According to his fellow passengers, the unidentified man, who suffer a bloody injury to his mouth, claimed to be a physician and said he couldn’t deplane because he had patients to see.
“The doctor needed to work at the hospital the next day,” Jayse D. Anspach posted on Twitter, along with several videos showing the incident unfold.
So when it came time to clear room for the United employees, “he refused to ‘volunteer,’ ” Anspach said.
United spokeswoman Maddie King told The Post on Monday that the man refused to get off the plane and was forcibly removed to make room for a crew member who needed to catch a “downline connection” in Louisville that night.
The airline employee was one of four workers who had to board the flight to make their connection, she said.
King said United would have been forced to cancel the flight — inconveniencing even more passengers — had it not gotten the employees on board.
“[The crew] asked for four vol- unteers, didn’t get the number of volunteers we needed, so they began approaching individuals one by one,” King explained.
“We had three customers who deplaned when they were requested, and we also had an additional customer who was asked to deplane repeatedly, and he refused.”
United CEO Oscar Munoz, unfazed by the criticism, sent a tonedeaf e-mail to employees Monday that defended the staff ’s actions and called the passenger “disruptive and belligerent.”
In the message, leaked online,
Munoz said he “emphatically” stands behind his staff and commended them for going “above and beyond.”
The incident comes two weeks after United’s yoga-pants debacle, in which two girls who were traveling as friends or family of a United employee were barred from boarding a flight out of Denver because of their leggings. In that case, the airline cited its right to refuse passengers who are “not properly attired.”
Sunday’s incident is being investigated by the US Department of Transportation to determine whether United complied with regulations on removing passengers.
Another video, posted by Audra Bridges, shows guards hauling the screaming man out of his seat and down the aisle.
At one point, the man runs to the back of the plane, where he is seen looking disoriented.
“They kill me,” he can be heard saying, blood smeared across his face. “They kill me, they kill me.”
Bridges told the Courier-Journal of Louisville that passengers had been informed at the gate that United was offering $400 and a ho- tel stay for a volunteer who would agree to take another flight, at 3 p.m. Monday.
After everyone boarded, the airline told the man and three others that they had to give up their seats.
According its Contract of Carriage, United would have selected the four passengers based on several factors, including a passenger’s “fare class, itinerary, status of frequent-flier program membership, and the time in which the passenger presents him/herself for check-in without advanced seat assignment.”
Passengers were told the flight would not take off until they made room for the crew, Bridges said — and the compensation was increased to $800, but still no one took the offer to give up the final seat.
Officials said two security guards from the Chicago Department of Aviation had tried talking the man into leaving. A third guard later arrived and threw the man against an armrest before they dragged him out of the plane.
One of the three guards involved has been placed on leave, according to the department.