Katherine Biek
Why United Airlines Was Allowed To Boot That Passenger
The airline has a seldom-read contract of carriage that permits it to force passengers off planes, like it did recently in Chicago.
LEARN MOREPosted: 9:58 a.m. EDT Apr 12, 2017
United Airlines' CEO is finally truly apologizing after a passenger was forcibly removed from a plane Sunday.
On Tuesday, CEO Oscar Munoz referred to the incident as a "truly horrific event," saying, "No one should ever be mistreated this way."
This is actually Munoz's third statement on the incident, and it definitely conveys a more remorseful tone.
That isn't to say Munoz hasn't apologized before. He did Monday morning, but only for "having to re-accommodate" passengers.
And in a letter to employees that evening, Munoz called the customer who was forcibly removed "disruptive and belligerent."
"Had United shown compassion and intent to make things right, they could have come out of this at the very least looking like an airline that cares. Instead they've just made it even worse," PR expert Ed Zitron told CNN.
After that, a United spokesman told USA Today the flight wasn't actually overbooked, but the airline needed to bump four passengers so their crew members could travel instead.
Then United's stock lost $255 million in market value. And the Department of Transportation announced it's reviewing how the airline handled the incident.
United is now reviewing its policies for handling "oversold situations." Munoz said the company will release the results of the review by April 30.
