Unsettling video of a United Airlines passenger being forcibly removed from a flight has the internet in an uproar.
Several passengers on board the Louisville-bound plane Sunday night caught the incident on camera. The footage shows three men wearing security uniforms speaking with a passenger, then dragging him by his arms and legs across the aisle.
One passenger told The Louisville Courier-Journal they were told their flight was overbooked and that four people needed to give up their seats for stand-by United employees.
Please share this video. We are on this flight. United airlines overbooked the flight. They randomly selected people to...
Posted by Audra D. Bridges on Sunday, April 9, 2017
Volunteers were reportedly offered money and an overnight hotel stay, but no one stepped up. That's when a manager said a computer would randomly select who would be taken off the aircraft.
When the man in the video was chosen, witnesses said he got very upset and refused to leave. So security was called in to remove him from the plane.
On Monday, United's CEO apologized for the incident, saying, "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. ... Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened."
Most airlines overbook flights in order to compensate for passengers who don't show up.
And it's not illegal for them to involuntarily bump a passenger off a flight. But airlines are required to give that passenger a written statement describing their rights and explaining how the airline decides who does and doesn't get on an oversold flight.
