People were left horrified after several United Airlines passengers captured videos of a man being dragged off of an overbooked flight leaving Chicago O'Hare on Monday.
According to passengers, the flight was overbooked by four people. After no passengers volunteered to give up their seats, security guards were called in and physically removed a man from his seat and dragged him off the plane.
The man shown being dragged by security apparently told them that he was a doctor and needed to see patients the next day.
In a statement following the incident, United said they "[apologized] for the overbook situation."
This, of course, also follows the leggings incident last month. In that instance, the company stopped three young girls from boarding a flight because they were not in compliance with a dress code required for "company benefit travel."
Many people are now calling for a boycott of the airline.
Boycott @United if you can. They overcharge you, abuse you & will lose your luggage. With no remorse.
People are also turning to trolling as an effort to be heard. A United tweet from last Wednesday asking people to share their "wanderlust ... travel pics" suddenly has a lot of responses.
Watch what happens when travelers from around the world follow their wanderlust — use #UnitedJourney to share your… https://t.co/KOBG59TANs
People shared pictures, all right.
@united #UnitedJourney
Videos too.
@united This guy has a great holiday! #UnitedJourney
"This happens to travelers when they follow their wanderlust with United," someone wrote, sharing the video.
@united This happens to travellers when they follow their wanderlust with @united. #UnitedAirlines #BoycottUnited https://t.co/HsAVWwXXVP
Their ~fun~ tweet offering a free flight for the guy who was challenged by Wendy's to get 18 million retweets for nuggets also backfired.
@united @Wendys @carterjwm They might knock you out in the process though, so I wouldn't take it.
@united @Wendys wanna give the guy u beat up a free flight too? maybe more than 1?
"How many RTs do I need for you to own the wrong?"
@united @Wendys @united how many RTs do I need for you to own the wrong? #NuggsForCarter
A recent tweet about how they "came together" to help veterans was met with more demands for answers. And trolling.
@united @ChiBizJournal https://t.co/YeOx6AStde ???
@united @ChiBizJournal Were these vets disabled before they got on your planes or after...?
’Cause the only thing ~united~ right now is public disgust.
United Airlines is pleased to announce new seating on all domestic flights- in addition to United First and Economy… https://t.co/PWexcDO8kp
Wow now is not the time United
UNITED: Leggings are a breach of decorum. ALSO UNITED: We will beat you and drag you from the plane if we want your seat for our employee.
“Welcome aboard. Oh, and we need some volunteers to be bumped.” -@United
When pressed further on the issue, United directed BuzzFeed News to a new statement on behalf of the CEO, Oscar Munoz.
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411.
The statement from Munoz reads: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation."
Unfortunately, "re-accommodate" wasn't exactly the word people were hoping to hear, either.
@united "Re-accommodate!" You assaulted a paying customer, knocked him out and dragged him off a plane.
@united Uhh "re-accommodation" was not the main problem here
How many Ls can one airline — never mind.
Dear #united, I had to "re-accommodate" someone once