Advertisement

Airline CEO blames 'disruptive' passenger who was dragged off overbooked flight

United Airlines has rushed to the defence of their security staff, instead blaming a passenger who was dragged off an overbooked flight, because they say he was being "disruptive and belligerent”.

The comments come after phone footage showed an incident involving airline staff violently removing a passenger from the flight as he screamed, requesting for them to stop.

However the US airline’s CEO Oscar Munoz said that staff was “left with no choice” during the incident, which caused wide-spread outrage online.

“Treating our customers and each other with respect and dignity is at the core of who we are, and we must always remember this no matter how challenging the situation,” Mr Munoz wrote in an email to employees.

He claimed that after staff realised the flight had been overbooked, they requested volunteers before enacting an "involuntary denial of boarding process”.

The passenger was dragged from the flight and allegedly left bloodied in the process. Source: Twitter
The passenger was dragged from the flight and allegedly left bloodied in the process. Source: Twitter
Oscar Munoz blamed the customer, not his security staff, for the drama that unfolded during Sunday's flight. Source: Reuters
Oscar Munoz blamed the customer, not his security staff, for the drama that unfolded during Sunday's flight. Source: Reuters

“When we approached one of these passengers to explain apologetically that he was being denied boarding, he raised his voice and refused to comply with crew member instructions.

“He was approached a few more times after that in order to gain his compliance to come off the aircraft and each time he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent."

One security officer was placed on paid leave for failing to follow the airline’s “standard operating procedure” following the incident on the flight.

Witnesses have criticised the airline staff involved in the incident.

One eyewitness said after the bloodied passenger was dragged off the plane “they lost the man in the terminal”.

“He ran back on the plane covered in blood shaking and saying that he had to get home over and over," she alleged.

“I wonder if he did not have a concussion at this point. They then kicked everybody off the plane to get him off a second time and clean the blood out of the plane.”

The customer said that the entire incident took about two and a half hours.