CHICAGO (WCMH/AP) – Video shows three security officials dragging a passenger from a United Airlines flight at a Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reports a United representative confirmed Sunday night that a person was removed from Flight 3411 to Louisville, Kentucky, saying it was “overbooked.”
The airport said it needed four seats for its own personnel to be at work the next day, so the airline asked for four volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for $400 and a hotel stay. No one took the offer.
The airline then raised the amount to $800, but still no one took the officer.
United said airline representatives then chose four passengers at random when no volunteers agreed to leave the overbooked flight. They requested law enforcement assistance when one of them refused to leave.
Passenger Audra D. Bridges posted the video on Facebook. It shows the guards grabbing then dragging the passenger down the aisle. Screaming is heard and other passengers say “Oh my God” and “Look at what you did to him.”
Witnesses say the man claimed he was a doctor who needed to see patients at a hospital in the morning.
He managed to get back on the plane and ran to the back, where he seemed disoriented. All passengers were then asked to get off the plane and they later re-boarded.
United Airlines issued a statement saying “after our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.”The Associated Press contributed to this report.