I seem to be alone on an island on this one. Yes, United Airlines acted horribly on a number of fronts the way it handled bouncing that doctor from a flight to make room for four of its crew members. Yes, the crew members should have been booked on another flight or at least accounted for before everyone else was seated. Yes, United should have offered more money and perks to get four people to voluntarily give up their seats. Yes, the United CEO should have been more delicate in his original comments rather than just coldly stating they followed their procedures and were sorry they had to "re-accommodate" the bloody passenger. And most importantly perhaps, it looks as if United may have violated its own terms when it forced removal of a passenger who had already been seated.
That said, it seems I'm the only one in America who also has a problem with the doctor who got booted. He reportedly got up, was leaving the plane, then bolted back in. He decided to go limp and "accidentally" got cut when his head hit an armrest. Regardless of whether he was technically in the right or not, it's not up to each individual passenger to decide who will board a plane and who will not. Like it or not, there has to be a system in place and that system is administered by the airline not 260 different laymen (passengers). Eventually the doctor should have realized the decision was made and considerately let his fellow passengers get to their destinations. He could have continued his fight in the terminal while calling his attorney. And by the way, what was the deal with his screaming like a spoiled child and repeatedly yelling, "Kill me now! Kill me now!"? If it were me, I'd be fuming too but I sure as hell would not have handled it that way.
- Chuck
Chuck and Kelly spoke with reporter Bill Zimpfer about the incident.