Passenger’s ‘Face Was Bloody and He Seemed Disoriented’ Witness Says
After realizing a flight from Chicago to Louisville Sunday night was overbooked, United Airlines asked for four volunteers to accept up to $800 to give up their seats. When that didn’t work, airline officials chose four passengers by computer to be removed from the flight, and then reportedly called law enforcement. Law enforcement, according to a video posted online, forcibly removed one of the four, a man who told them he is a physician who had to see patients in the hospital Monday morning, according to the Courier-Journal.
“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked,” a United Airlines spokesperson told the Courier-Journal. “After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate.”
“We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities,” the spokesperson said.
The Courier-Journal in an updated report notes, “once the flight was filled those on the plane were told that four people needed to give up their seats to stand-by United employees that needed to be in Louisville on Monday for a flight.”
Audra D. Bridges posted the video above to Facebook.
“We are on this flight,” Bridges wrote. “United airlines overbooked the flight. They randomly selected people to kick off so their standby crew could have a seat. This man is a doctor and has to be at the hospital in the morning. He did not want to get off. We are all shaky and so disgusted.”
In what seems an even stranger move, the passenger who was forcibly removed by law enforcement agents, “was able to get back on the plane after initially being taken off – his face was bloody and he seemed disoriented, Bridges said, and he ran to the back of the plane,” the Courier-Journal reports. “Passengers asked to get off the plane as a medical crew came on to deal with the passenger, she said, and passengers were then told to go back to the gate so that officials could ‘tidy up’ the plane before taking off.”
Here’s another video from another angle:
On Twitter, many were outraged:
Late last month United was also the subject of public outrage, after refusing to allow two young girls wearing leggings to board. News reports say the girls were using employee passes and thus “considered airline representatives.”
This article has been updated with new information from The Courier-JournalÂ