A video showing a man being violently dragged off a United Airlines flight on Monday has led to an uproar on social media. China’s state media lambasted United Airlines as “arrogant and cold-blooded” after video went viral on Chinese state media of a pass
A video showing a man being violently dragged off a United Airlines flight on Monday has led to an uproar on social media. China’s state media lambasted United Airlines as “arrogant and cold-blooded” after video went viral on Chinese state media of a passenger being dragged off a flight to make room for travelling airline staff.
Photo:Fortune
The footage captures aviation officers forcibly pulling a 69-year-old male from a window seat on flight 3411.
The scene occurred just before the aircraft was about to take off from the Chicago O’Hare International Airport, headed to Louisville.
The man, only known as a doctor, had a bleeding mouth and was mumbling in the video. Cries for help from other passengers could also be heard.
United Airlines confirmed airline employees were trying to make room for four employees of a partner airline.
Photo:Twitter
According to an unidentifiable witness, the company firstly offered $400 vouchers, which was then increased to $800,and free accommodation at a nearby hotel to passengers willing to give up their seats on a fully-booked flight.
After many passengers refused, airline staff automatically picked four passengers to be removed.
The elderly doctor, who had Asian facial features, refused to leave and said he hadto work at a hospital the next day.
“The old man’s screaming and blood on his face fully proves the brutality of security staff. And the airline’s response afterwards was arrogant and cold-blooded,” the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said on its social media account.
“Who dares to fly with such an airline, which is supposed to uphold the values of taking care of people, but trampled over customers’ rights and interests?”
The US Department of Transportation has already started investigations into the matter.
Since the incident, one of the Chicago Department of Aviation security officers, involved in the scenario, has been placed on paid leave.
Photo:The Telegraph
The incident has attracted a lot of attention from Chinese media, including People’s Daily, which published the video on Sina Weibo.
Attention has since continued to rise on the Chinese social media platform, and the United Airlines situation was rated the most popular topic on Tuesday.
Among the ever increasing comments was Joe Wong, a Chinese American comedian who shot to fame after making appearances on the David Letterman and Ellen Degeneres shows.
Wong called for 2.6 million followers on Weibo to sign a petition for boycotting the airline. Some Weibo users responded, stating they would never fly with the airline again.
Photo:Digiday
The latest incident also prompted reminiscence of bad customer service experiences.
A Weibo user recalled an experience of how staff at the Untied Airlines refused to apologize for misplacing her luggage, which was lost at an airport in Chicago.
“Since the incident, the United Airlines is on my no-fly list,” she said.
If the boycott of flights continues, business for the United Airlines could stumble in the Chinese market – a market where the airline has made strides in recent years. Last year the market-savvy carrier added two direct flights to its already busy China-US air routes: Xi’an/Hangzhou-San Francisco.
The airline’s move to apologize has since been closely watched by many online users in China.
Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines’ parent company, defended the actions of United Airline staff in a letter to employees, after first writing a statement.
Photo: Dailymail
Munoz said he was “upset to see and hear about what happened” at O’Hare.
He then added the man was dragged off the plane because he ignored requests by crew members to leave, and became “disruptive and belligerent”.
“Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this,” he said to employees of United Airlines.
“While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you.”
After the letter went public, online outrage escalated on Weibo and many users cited his response to the incident as having a bad attitude.
At the other side of Pacific, a similar reaction emerged on Twitter, which has been flooded with a mixture of anger and mockery.
Photo:Twitter
The story, which has gone viral and sparked outrage on Chinese social media platforms, has prompted an online petition on the official White House petition site We the People.
Created on Tuesday, the #ChineseLivesMatters petition reached the required 100,000 signature count, which puts the document in a queue intended for review by the White House, in about a day. These petitions, launched on a section of the whitehouse.gov website, have 30 days to reach their goal in order to get an official response.
“We are calling [sic] the federal government to launch an investigation into this incident. #ChineseLivesMatters,” the petition states.
As 4.45pm EDT (4.45am HKT) the #ChineseLivesMatter petition on We the People reached it’s goal of 100,000 signatures. Photo:SCMP
This is the second time in less than a month that United has been caught in a social media storm. In late March, a United gate agent’s decision to refuse to board two teenage girls wearing leggings provoked a viral backlash.
Source:BBC, CNN, Ecns, SCMP