Originally Posted by
Bruce Wrenn
Passenger wasn't remove from plane by a United employee, but by CITY OF CHICAGO employees. Read the fine print on your ticket contract. Airlines can bump, or deny boarding to anyone, at anytime. As for denying boarding, it's usually the captain's call. You need to walk a mile in air crews shoes before criticizing them. You won't believe the horror stories of unruly passengers. Again, United should have offered them passage to Louisville via ground transportation and $$ for their troubles. They would have gotten home about five hours later than expected. Because crew had to have TEN HOURS OF REST (it's the law) before next day, they couldn't be bused to Louisville. Chicago (O'Hare) doesn't have private planes, if memory serves me correct, so anybody would have to be bused across town. By then, the clock for crew would have run out. On a lighter note, once on a flight the captain gave baggage handler heck. Then told first officer that "She had showed that guy who was in charge!" After departure, crew scheduling contacted plane and informed captain that some how her bags didn't get put on the plane. Hope she had some clean undies in her brief case.
The problem is that Dr Dao was not unruly. He was simply sitting in his seat. And it doesn't matter who actually pulled him from his seat, United called them.
The proper way to deal with a situation like that - if you're not going to do it the correct way and buy volunteers - is to tell Dr Dao, "We're not going to drag you from the flight but when we get to our destination you're going to be arrested and charged with interference with a flight crew."
Then tell the passengers that because of Dr. Dao's position they're going to have to deplane someone else. That way, there would not be an embarrassing video. At the destination, Dr. Dao can either disembark with everyone else, and he will be arrested when he gets to the terminal, or if he refuses to leave his seat, everyone else will get off and there won't be a video of them dragging him off the plane.
Of course, the absolute best way to handle the situation is to not have the situation arise - Offer money instead of vouchers (that most people don't want) and offer enough that you get volunteers.
And to Bill Gugel's point: They don't treat us as criminals - they treat us as cattle.
Mike
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 04-13-2017 at 10:59 PM.
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