United forcibly removes passenger from plane

A Vietnamese descent passenger of United Airlines was forcibly dragged, to make room for airline staff,  from an overbooked flight from Chicago to Louisville, Ky. and left with blood dripping from his face. The video of United Airlines passenger creates a furore in China as over 270 million viewers watched in Weibo Chinese equivalent of Twitter with over 150, 000 comments. Several Chinese social media users accused United of racism while others called for a boycott. The passenger was dragged from his seat by security officers after refusing to be bumped from the plane.

United has said that the passenger and three others were selected to be removed from the flight after no one accepted the offer of a voucher to leave voluntarily. United’s CEO Oscar Munoz apologised for having to re-accommodate these customers called the episode “upsetting” and said the airline was conducting a review. “The actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned,” he said.

Oscar Munoz defended crew in a leaked email to the carrier’s employees following the outcry over video footage taken of the incident at Chicago O’Hare International airport. The passenger, a doctor who needed to work the next day – shouts “kill me” as he struggles to stay on the plane before returning with blood on his face. His email said that staff were only following “established procedures” after asking for volunteers to leave the overbooked flight – and described the passenger as “disruptive and Belligerent”. When none came forward, the passenger was selected for “involuntary denial of boarding” to return for £810 ($1000).

Stock in United Continental Holdings plummeted by over 4 per cent wiping out £800m ($1bn )of its value, shares later recovered and were down just 1 per cent when markets closed.

The controversy threatened to hurt United’s revenue in China, where the airline which began flying in 1986 had 96 departures a week to cities in mainland China and Hong Kong.