Pepsi might’ve been first to piss off the internet this week, but it didn’t have to beat up a man on a plane to do it. Yes, United Airlines, we’re looking at you.
The American airline landed itself in hot water Monday evening CST after one of its passengers was violently removed from a Chicago flight because the flight was overbooked.
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The airline states that no passenger was willing to give up their seat, and chose four passengers randomly to leave the flight. When one man refused, things got ugly.
According to a number of videos published on Twitter and Facebook, the Asian man who claimed to be a doctor was then forcibly removed from the plane.
Kicking and screaming and clearly upset at being wrenched from his seat, the man was then dragged along the floor of the plane by US officers. It’s not graceful at all.
@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here’s how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW
— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017
Incidentally, the above clip has been retweeted over 140 000 times, and favourited over 120 000.
Other videos shows the man visible rattled and bloodied, clinging to one of the aircraft’s curtains.
#flythefriendlyskies my husband was on that flight. Screw you United!! @united pic.twitter.com/4EcxrMy5jZ
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
Some passengers were forced to disembark to clean up the blood splattered on the aircraft’s furniture.
@TomAdzo @united Yes. They had to deboard to clean up his blood. pic.twitter.com/yU0HpZZKoT
— Kaylyn Davis (@kaylyn_davis) April 10, 2017
Understandably, the incident swiftly went viral.
The Washington Post reported that the incident made social news in China especially. On Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, the topic reportedly racked up over 85-million views by Tuesday afternoon in the country. Calls to boycott the airlines was also prevalent on WeChat.
In a bid to quell the already blazing social wildfire, United Airlines issued a statement on Twitter in the late hours of Monday evening SAST, made by its CEO Oscar Munoz.
United CEO: ‘I apologise for having to re-accommodate these customers’
“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United,” he notes.
“I apologise for having to re-accommodate these customers. Out team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened.”
United CEO response to United Express Flight 3411. pic.twitter.com/rF5gNIvVd0
— United (@united) April 10, 2017
That tweet received 49 000 replies — rarely, more than both retweets and favourites. But of course, because the internet has its own particular way of addressing issues like this, people weren’t at all kind to United.
Many of these replies were questioning the airline’s customer etiquette, its right to forcibly remove passengers, the apology from Munoz himself, and the term he used in the tweet: “re-accommodate”.
Nice to know “re-accomodate” on United now means “drag you violently out of your seat.”
— Meg
(@sassylibrarian1) April 10, 2017
@united “Re-accommodate”, really? What horrifying corporate hell-zone do you live in that you think that’s the word describing what you did?
— Michael (@OmanReagan) April 10, 2017
@united Here. Fixed it for you. pic.twitter.com/cz9WgP26fb
— Omri (@Omri_Rawrlan) April 10, 2017
@united how about you fucking apologize for having a paying costumer beaten to the point out bleeding out of his mouth. wtf is wrong with u
— Dyro (@Dyro) April 11, 2017
@united …what a half-assed response. United is the BUTTHOLE of airlines, & from the looks of it, you’ll have PLENTY of employee seats from now on. pic.twitter.com/8MknBXca75
— Zachary Jaydon (@ZacharyJaydon) April 10, 2017
@united pic.twitter.com/iq4BN0fS2u
— Perez (@ThePerezHilton) April 10, 2017
As a side effect, many passengers have turned their nose up at United, with SouthWest seemingly one of the beneficiaries. And yes, they include memes too.
@united I’m a frequent flier of yours. This morning I chose to “reaccomodate” thousands of $ in biz to @SouthwestAir #bummer
— Maryrose (@MaryroseBisagna) April 10, 2017
While the toll this incident will take on United’s business in the short term is questionable (especially noting the possibly Chinese boycott), its Twitter account has seen a surprising jump in followers.
According to SocialBlade, around 7700 followers were gained between 10 and 11 April.
This isn’t the first time United has painted a target on its back for social media users either.
Just last month, two young girls were barred from boarding a flight because they were wearing leggings.
“The passengers this morning were United pass riders who were not in compliance with our dress code policy for company benefit travel,” the airline tweeted in defence.
Feature image: JBabinski380 via Flickr (CC 2.0, resized)
