Hours after shocking footage showed a security officer dragging a man from his airplane seat, United Airlines is speaking out, blaming the man for not giving up his spot on the flight.
It all started when United overbooked a flight, and asked for four volunteers to give up their seats for a flight crew that was needed in another city. When nobody came forward, they “randomly” selected people to leave the plane. One passenger, a Chinese man, declined to leave, reportedly explaining that he was a doctor who needed to be at work in the morning.
The airline would not take no for an answer, calling in officers to remove him from the flight, leaving the man bloodied, disoriented, and seeming to talk of suicide.
Shockingly, United has stood by its actions with its representative Charlie Hobart saying, “We followed the right procedures. That plane had to depart,” adding, “We wanted to get our customers to their destinations, and when one gentleman refused to get off the aircraft, we had to call the Chicago Police Department.”
In another statement, United CEO Oscar Munoz offered a vague apology for overbooking, without accepting any blame for the man’s injuries. “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” the statement read. “Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own 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.”
The responding officers are also dodging blame, claiming he injured himself when “he fell” onto an arm rest. Still, the officer who dragged him from the plane has been placed on suspension amid social media uproar.
As for the man injured in the incident, a bystander claims that he felt he was picked to leave the plane because of his nationality.
“He said, more or less, ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese,'” the source told the Washington Post.
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