United Airlines settles "confidential" amount with Passenger dragged off plane

By Park Sae-jin Posted : April 29, 2017, 18:15 Updated : April 29, 2017, 18:15

[Courtesy of Pixabay]


When the videos of a 69-year-old doctor from Kentucky getting dragged off from United Airlines plane emerged on the social medias, it triggered a huge controversy of how the aviation company treats its customers when overbooked.

In the beginning, CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, issued a statement on Monday, April 10, "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."

However, the usage of the word "re-accommodate" triggered vast scale of the angry reactions from social media users. 

The very next day, Munoz released another statement regarding the incident, "The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened. Like you I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated in this way. I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right."

However, already disappointed and angered customers turned their backs on United and the company's stock plummeted dramatically and lost about $255 million in value. 

According to BBC, Dr. Dao was compensated in "confidential" amount from United Airlines and his lawyers said, Munoz "said he was going to do the right thing and he has". 

This incident had brought a spotlight to how aviation companies treat their customers when the companies overbooked, and many companies revised their policies immediately after the incident. Also, United CEO Oscar Munoz was denied the promised promotion to the board Chairman position. 






Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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