LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – The CEO of United Airlines has responded to the removal of a passenger from a United flight.

The flight was overbooked, according to United Airlines, so the airline asked for volunteers to leave the aircraft.

One man said he had to get home and refused to voluntarily give up his seat and that's when we are told the police were called to remove him. The man was forced out of his seat by officials and dragged him down the aisle.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.” – Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Klaassen, eyewitness: "They treated him as less than human"

The boss of United Airlines has apologised for the "truly horrific" incident in which a passenger was forcibly dragged, screaming, from a flight.

Oscar Munoz said he "continues to be disturbed" by the incident, captured on a video that went viral on Twitter.

He said the company would "fix what's broken so it never happens again".

The family of the passenger, David Dao, issued a statement expressing gratitude for the "outpouring of support".

He is undergoing treatment at a Chicago hospital.

The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being pulled out of his seat and dragged, screaming, down the aisle. He is later seen with blood on his face.

The flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday evening had been fully booked, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin told USA Today newspaper. The airline wanted to get four passengers to leave the flight to make room for four staff members who were needed in Louisville the next day.

United had previously described the flight as overbooked.

United Airline's public relations disaster

Why do airlines overbook?

Image copyright Jayse D Anspach Image caption Footage showed Dr Dao's glasses had been knocked off and he had blood on his face

Three passengers agreed to leave the plane.

But Dr Dao said he worked in a hospital and needed to see his patients the next day, an eyewitness tweeted.

A video that appears to show him dazed and with blood around his mouth, saying "just kill me", having run back on the plane, also emerged online.

Earlier, Mr Munoz had defended employees' conduct and said the passenger had been "disruptive and belligerent". Employees were "left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight", he added.

He came under intense criticism online and the incident reached the ears of the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, who called it "troubling".

Would you change your flight for money?

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption White House: Spokesman Sean Spicer calls United Airlines incident 'troubling'

The statement released on behalf of Dr Dao said the family "wants the world to know that they are very appreciative of the outpouring of prayers, concern and support they have received".

It said the family was at present only concerned with Dr Dao's medical care and would not be making further statements until he was discharged.

One of the aviation security officers involved in removing Dr Dao from the plane has been "placed on leave", the Chicago Department of Aviation said, and his actions were "obviously not condoned by the department".

It also said it would carry out a review into the incident, which it said was "not in accordance with our standard operating procedure".

The US Department of Transportation is reviewing whether United complied with rules on overbooking.

US media say David Dao is a medical doctor from Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

United earlier said it was trying to talk to him directly in order to "further address and resolve this situation".

United's parent company's share price plummeted on Tuesday.

Stock in United Continental Holdings dropped by more than 4% at one point with nearly $1bn (£800m) wiped off its value, but the share prices later recovered and were down just 1% when markets closed.</s>United Airlines’ CEO, Oscar Munoz, sent an email to his employees on Monday, commending them for following established procedures when a passenger was dragged off the plane due to an overbooked flight, Time reports. He also placed the blame on the passenger, whom he said was being “disruptive and belligerent.”

United Airlines has been facing online outrage since Monday after a video of a passenger being forcibly removed off United flight 3411 was uploaded online and then went viral. The video shows the passenger screaming at the top of his lungs as an officer pulled him off his seat and dragged him off the Louisville-bound plane just before take-off at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. The man sustained injuries to the head when he hit an armrest while being forcibly removed.

In a second video, the passenger claimed he was a doctor who desperately wants to return to his patients at the hospital Monday morning.

“This situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers we politely asked to deplane refused and it became necessary to contact Chicago Aviation Security Officers to help,” United Airlines wrote in an email to employees, as reported by CNBC. “Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this. While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you.”

United Airlines’ first statement was posted on Monday, apologizing for having to “re-accommodate these customers,” and then calling the unfortunate incident an “upsetting event.”

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United,” Munoz said. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.”

The United Airlines scandal continues to receive backlash on social media, with many vowing to never use the services of the beleaguered airline again.

A spokesperson for United explained the Flight 3411 incident in a statement Monday morning.

“Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate,” the statement said. “We apologize for the overbook situation.”

Audra Bridges, a Flight 3411 passenger who uploaded the viral video, told the Courier-Journal United Airlines announced that the flight was overbooked before take-off, and said that four passengers are needed to volunteer to transfer to a later flight to make room for four United employees who needed to get to Louisville by Monday.

Bridges said United offered $400 and free hotel accommodations for one volunteer. When no one responded to the offer, they doubled the offer to $800. United Airlines then randomly selected passengers, and when one of them refused to leave his seat, they called the Chicago police to have him forcibly removed from the plane.

The Chicago Aviation Department suspended the officer who dragged the passenger from his seat and left him with a split lip, as reported by DNA Info. The unidentified officer was placed on leave Monday, “pending a thorough review” of the incident, according to Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride.

“The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department,” she said.

Before the Aviation Department announced that one of the officers didn’t follow normal procedures, the Chicago Police Department said that the passenger became “irate” as soon as he was asked to remove himself from the plane.

Police said the passenger was taken to Lutheran General Hospital for treatment. His injuries were declared non-threatening.</s>United Airlines is involved in yet another controversy after a disturbing video of a man being forcibly removed from a United flight has gone viral.</s>A United Airlines viral video caused outcry on social media after the footage revealed how a passenger was beaten to a pulp for refusing to leave the plane in a classic case of airline overbooking.

On Monday, a video of a man who was forcibly removed from his seat on United Flight 3411 became viral online, resulting in one airline security officer to be placed on mandatory leave pending a probe by the Department of Transportation.

The passenger, who appears to be of Asian descent, was being dragged from his seat by men wearing police jackets, bumping him and his wife off a flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday.

After different angles of the incident surfaced online, social media users jumped in to criticize how the matter was handled poorly.

What makes things a whole lot worse is that despite being at fault as seen in the United Airlines viral video, the airline’s head security officer decided not to apologize for the incident.

Citing Reuters, an article from Fortune revealed that United Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz is not planning to apologize to the passenger because he “defied” the security officers sent to the scene.

“We sought volunteers and then followed our involuntary denial of boarding process (including offering up to $1,000 in compensation),” Munoz’s letter read.

But while the airline’s CEO is stern with his position and “emphatically” supports his employees, the Chicago Department of Aviation decided that one officer did not follow protocol and had been put on mandatory leave as they investigate the matter thoroughly.

The actions of the security personnel seen on the United Airlines viral video are already questionable. However, this incident brings to light one more issue that has plagued the airlines for so long: overbooking.

According to an article from Wired,overbooking is beneficial for everyone “in a sense” as they ask Cranky Concierge travel agency owner Brett Snyder to explain why this is.

“It’s all about trying to maximize the revenue they bring in, and part of that is making sure there’s a butt in every seat,” Snyder said.

But while the outlet agrees with the businessman, it also highlights a fallout: the passenger bargaining. According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), bumping passengers through passenger bargaining is legal, although there remains a matter of civility as to how it should be handled.

“While it is legal for airlines to involuntarily bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline’s responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities,” a statement from the DOT stated.

But what happened to the poor man in the United Airlines viral video? Frankly, it was the worst passenger bargaining ever. As seen on the footage, the security personnel weren’t very good at passenger bargaining and decided to use violence instead.

On top of that, the CEO of the airlines seem to have lost all sense of humility by refusing to apologize for the apparent misconduct that severely reeks of racial discrimination. This just makes United passengers feel like they are characters in the Hunger Games– waiting for their name to be called from a bowl to be randomly ejected from the flight they paid for.

Like one tweeter posted: Pepsi already delivered a highly insensitive commercial with their Kendall Jenner ad but the airlines win the worst PR situation after the United Airlines viral video emerged.

A small consolation is the change of heart the airline’s CEO experienced, finally seeing the light and apologized to the passengers albeit in a statement crafted to suit their PR needs.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened,” United CEO Munoz said in a statement cited by CNBC.

Is it enough? Only the victim seen in the United Airlines viral video can answer that. Tell us what you think in the comments section below.</s>United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz says he felt "ashamed" watching video of a passenger being dragged off a flight and has promised to review the airline's passenger removal policy.

In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, Mr Munoz apologised to Dr David Dao of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, his family and the other passengers who witnessed him being forcibly removed from the United Express plane.

Mr Munoz vowed this "will never happen again on a United flight" and that law enforcement will not be involved in future.

Mr Munoz called the embarrassment a "system failure", saying United will review its policies for seeking volunteers to give up their seats when a flight is full.

United was trying to find seats for four employees, meaning four passengers had to leave the aircraft.</s>It didn’t take long for the internet to turn the entire United Airlines passenger ejection fiasco into a meme that will live on for a long time, serving as a constant reminder of just how badly the company handled the situation. Now, with countless current and former United Airlines passengers pledging to never fly with the company again, competing airlines are using the troubling event as an opportunity to both lure in new customers and take a jab at the third largest airline on the planet.

Royal Jordanian was the first of United’s competitors to jump at the opportunity to rub salt in an open wound, tweeting a joke that, while timely, might be a bit on the tasteless side:

Social media users keeping tabs on the situation weren’t particularly thrilled with Royal Jordanian’s approach, but it still managed to score quite a bit of exposure, for better or worse.

Next, Emirates decided to try its hand at capitalizing on United’s drama by taking a direct shot at its CEO. In a tweet, the company quoted United Airlines President and CEO Oscar Munoz — fresh off of a terribly tone-deaf statement about the passenger ejection incident — who had taken a dig at “those [gulf] airlines,” which includes Emirates:

It’s a much more clear-headed approach than the knee-jerk trolling of Royal Jordanian, but it’s also an incredibly bold move to steal a competitors tagline and basically make it your own.

It’s worth noting that none of the major North American airlines took the opportunity to mock United, which may be due to the fact that almost all of them have had their own issues in the past. Of course, that didn’t stop the meme masters of Twitter from spawning a few unofficial gags of their own:</s>United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz has apologized for the “truly horrific” headline-making incident in which security dragged a 69-year-old doctor from an overbooked flight from Chicago to Louisville over the weekend. “I want you to know that we take full responsibility, and we will work to make it right,” Munoz said in a statement Tuesday. “I promise you we will do better.” Munoz went on to pledge a full review by the end of the month “to fix what’s broken so this never happens again.” CNN Money notes that this was Munoz’s third attempt to resolve the outrage that occurred after a now-viral video emerged of a bloodied and screaming passenger being removed from a plane to make room for crew members. Prior to his apology, Munoz emailed all United employees on Monday assuring them that he stood behind the crew members’ actions. Meanwhile, United’s stock price has plunged and even White House press secretary Sean Spicer weighed in. “I don’t think anyone looks at that video and isn’t a little disturbed that another human being is treated that way,” he told reporters</s>CHICAGO (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz says he felt “ashamed” watching video of a passenger being dragged off a United Express flight and has promised to review the airline’s passenger removal policy.

In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” aired Wednesday, Munoz apologized to Dr. David Dao of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, his family and the other passengers who witnessed him being forcibly removed from the plane.

♦♦♦ Click Here To Watch The Video ♦♦♦

Munoz vowed this “will never happen again on a United flight” and that law enforcement won’t be involved in future.

But it was just two days ago when Munoz was mocked for describing how David Dao was removed from Flight 3411. The statement he issued then said in part, “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.”

Today Munoz called the embarrassment a “system failure,” and said United will review its policies for seeking volunteers to give up their seats when a flight is full. United was trying to find seats for four employees, meaning four passengers had to deplane.</s>LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) — United Airlines said passengers on United Express Flight 3411 are getting compensation equal to the cost of their tickets.

Spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said Wednesday that the passengers can take the compensation in cash, travel credits or miles.

Dr. David Dao, 69, was on a full jet that was scheduled to fly from O’Hare Airport in Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday night when he and three other passengers were ordered off the plane to make room for some employees of a partner airline.

The others complied. After Dao refused, airport security officers yanked him out of his seat and dragged him off the plane.

Video of the incident was shown around the world, sparking public outrage.

United CEO Oscar Munoz has apologized for the incident and vowed Wednesday that it will never happen again.

In his most contrite apology yet, Oscar Munoz said no one should be mistreated that way. He described the removal by airport police as “truly horrific.”

Munoz is scrambling to contain the damage to the carrier’s reputation and vowed to reassess policies for seeking volunteers to give up their seats, for handling oversold flights and for partnering with airport authorities.

Meantime, two more airport police officers involved in the passenger removal debacle have been placed on leave.

On Thursday, the Chicago’s aviation commissioner is expected to address a city council committee about the incident.

Dao’s attorneys Wednesday filed papers asking the Cook County court to preserve reports and other material related to Sunday’s incident.

The attorneys want cockpit voice recordings, passenger and employee and crew lists, incident reports and the city Aviation Department’s personnel reports for the police who removed Dao from the plane. The attorneys also want United’s protocol for removing passengers from commercial aircraft. But no lawsuit has been filed yet.

They lawyers and a relative of Dao plan to talk to the media Thursday.

A Chicago alderman said representatives from United Airlines and the city Aviation Department have been summoned by his committee to answer questions about Sunday’s incident.

Alderman Mike Zalewski said he did not know who will represent the airline before the city council’s Aviation Committee. But the CEO of United’s parent company, Oscar Munoz, has been notified of the hearing scheduled for Thursday.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz issues an apology for the removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight on April 9, which has since gone viral. United Airlines stock drops more than 4%, a loss of £800 million to the company's value.