Passenger dragged off overbooked United flight
Apr 10, 2017, 8:51 AM | Updated: 3:11 pm
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
Three security guards dragged a screaming passenger off a United Airlines flight in Chicago after no travelers volunteered to leave an overbooked flight.
Video showed the security workers pulling a man from a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to accommodate stand-by airline employees.
One officer involved has been placed on leave, the Chicago Aviation Department said.
The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reported a company representative confirmed Sunday night that a traveler was removed from Flight 3411 to Louisville, Kentucky, saying it was “overbooked.”
Passenger Audra D. Bridges posted the video to social media.
[fb_embed_post href=”https://www.facebook.com/audra.dickerson/videos/vb.12932532/10104378182069960/?type=2&theater/” width=”550″/]
Other passengers screamed in dismay. Some can be heard screaming “Oh my God” and “Look at what you did to him.”
Several appeared to be recording the incident on their cellphones.
A video posted to Twitter appeared to show the man was able to get back on the plane. His face was bloody.
@united @CNN @FoxNews @WHAS11 Man forcibly removed from plane somehow gets back on still bloody from being removed pic.twitter.com/njS3nC0pDl
— Tyler Bridges (@Tyler_Bridges) April 10, 2017
Airline representatives chose four passengers at random when no one volunteered to leave the overbooked flight. Tyler Bridges, husband of Audra Bridges, said United offered $400 and then $800 vouchers and a hotel stay for volunteers.
The airline requested law enforcement assistance when one, a man who identified himself as a doctor, refused to leave.
United CEO Oscar Munoz tweeted out regrets for the ordeal.
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
