The short video shows a passenger being forced off a United Airlines flight before it was due to takeoff from O’Hare International Airport.
Audra D. Bridges posted the video to Facebook. It shows three men wearing radio equipment and security jackets speaking with a passenger. Within seconds, one of the men grabs the passenger and then drags him off the plane. Before anything else is shown, the video ends.
Please share this video. We are on this flight. 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. #unitedairways
Posted by Audra D. Bridges on Sunday, April 9, 2017
Charlie Hobart sent the Chicago Tribune an email, saying the flight was bound for Kentucky. Hobart said the staff looked for volunteers to get off the flight, but one customer refused to leave. He said that’s when law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. He added that United Airlines were sorry for the overbooked situation.
In the video, the man can be heard screaming as he is dragged by his arms. Other passengers appear to stick up for the passenger.
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Bridges provided her account of the incident, saying the man said he was a doctor and he had patients to see in the morning, so he didn’t want to give his seat up. That’s when the manager told him that if he didn’t leave willingly, then security would be called. He still refused and that’s when he became surrounded by the three men before being dragged off the flight.
This incident comes weeks after two teenagers were denied boarding onto a United Airlines flight because they were wearing leggings.