Video of cops forcibly dragging a United Airlines passenger from his seat on an overbooked flight went viral on Monday, sparking turbulence before the plane got off the ground.
Some of the shocked passengers gasped in disbelief at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Others recorded the Sunday evening clash on their cell phones, as the passenger who refused to give up his seat was left bloodied.
“Please, my God!” a passenger hollered.
“What are you doing?” asked another.
“This is wrong,” a passenger said. “Look at what you did to him.”
The confrontation raised questions about the aggressive tactics and whether the airline or police had the right to boot a paying customer from the flight.
The 5:40 p.m. flight to Louisville, Ky. was delayed two hours, according to airline officials. After passengers finally boarded the flight, United asked for volunteers to give up their seats to four United employees who needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight.
When no one budged, it was announced that passengers would be randomly selected for removal.
In the video, officers grab the screaming man from a window seat, pull him across the armrest and drag him down the aisle by his arms.
The man is named David Dao, a source with direct knowledge of the passenger’s identity told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
A spokesman for the company insisted that employees had no choice but to ask authorities to remove Dao. Officials claimed he was belligerent.
Passenger Audra Bridges posted the video on Facebook. Her husband, Tyler Bridges, told the Associated Press that United offered $400 and then $800 vouchers and a hotel stay for volunteers to give up their seats.
When no one accepted, a United manager came aboard and announced that passengers would be chosen at random.
“We almost felt like we were being taken hostage,” Tyler Bridges said. “We were stuck there. You can’t do anything as a traveler. You’re relying on the airline.”
When airline employees named four customers who had to leave the plane, three of them did so. The fourth person refused to move, and police were called, United spokesman Charlie Hobart said.
“We followed the right procedures,” Hobart told the Associated Press in a phone interview. “That plane had to depart. We wanted to get our customers to their destinations.”
Bridges said Dao became upset, and claimed he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning.
Dao was recorded reentering the plane, disoriented and bleeding, before the entire flight was evacuated.
After a three-hour delay the flight took off without the man aboard, Bridges said.
Most major airlines overbook flights in order to avoid empty seats on a plane.
While there was no explanation as to how the airline chooses which passengers to boot when a flight is overbooked, United’s website says, “Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA’s boarding priority,” which includes fare class, itinerary, status of frequent flyer program membership and the time of check in.
The Department of Transportation is reviewing the incident. One officer involved has been placed on leave, the Chicago Aviation Department said Monday.
The incident comes two weeks after United was criticized for barring two teenage girls from a flight because they were wearing leggings.
United CEO Oscar Munoz responded to the “upsetting event” with a statement promising a “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,” said Munoz.
In an email to employees leaked to ABC News, Munoz later added that the passenger had become “disruptive and belligerent” and said that, despite the unsettling video, crew members had followed protocol.
He added, however, that “there are lessons we can learn from this experience, and we are taking a close look at the circumstances surrounding this incident.”
The Chicago Police Department released a statement Monday afternoon acknowleging that they were contacted about “a 69-year-old male Asian airline passenger [who] become irate.”
“Aviation Officers arrived on scene attempted to carry the individual off of the flight when he fell. His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face,” reads the statement.
