United Airlines Violently Displaces Passenger from Overbooked Plane

(Adapted from the Washington Post, 11/4/2017)

United Flight 3411 had finishedboarding Sundayevening when gate agents were approached by crew members who needed seats. Passengers were initially offered moneyif they gave up their seats,but no one volunteered. So the airlineused what it describes as its"involuntary denial of boarding process," which is where the trouble started. Whenpassengers expecting to take off for Louisvillelearned that some of them would be forced to leave, the mood on the jet quickly soured. Bridgesand his wife were2 passengers on the last leg of a journey homefrom Japan, too tired to wait for the next flight. Before takeoff, anairline supervisor announced: "This flight's not leaving until four people get off." And since no passengerwas willing, United chose for them. A young couple "begrudgingly got up and left," Bridges recalled. The third evictee complied, too. But when the crew approached what Chicago police told NBC was a 69-year-old Asian man in a window seat, he refused. "He says, 'Nope. I'm not getting off the flight,'" Bridges said. "'I'm a doctor and have to see patients tomorrow morning.'" United said crew members apologetically toldthe man to leave, several times, "and each time he refused and became more and more disruptive." So the airline called the Chicago Department of Aviation, which handles security at O'Hare. Three officers boarded. By then, Bridges and another passenger were taking video on their cellphones footage that would soon be seen by millions. As officers leaned over the passenger in a window seat, other passengers acrosstheaisle sympathized withhim.

"Can't they rent a car for the pilots?" a woman asks in the videos. Suddenly, the man screams. One of the officers quickly reaches across two empty seats, yanks him up and pulls him into the aisle. "My God!" someone yells not for the first time. The man's face smacked an arm rest as the officer pulled him, according to witnesses and police. The man goes limp after hitting the floor. Blood trickling from his mouth, hisglasses nearly knocked off his face, he clutches his cellphone, and an officerdrags him by both arms down the aisle. "What are you doing?" someone asks in the video, as the man slides past. "No! This is wrong." When the man was gone and all four seats were free, Bridges said, the four stranded crew membersboarded and took them. Passengers were saying "You should be ashamed to work for this company." But a few minutes later, the man ran back onto the plane. "He continued to resist," United wrote in its summary, "running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials." His clothes arestillmessy from the dragging, his mouth bloody. "I have to go home," he keepssaying. "I have to go home." A group of high school students stood up and left the plane at that point, Bridges said. "They don't need to see this anymore," their escort explainedto other passengers. The airline eventually cleared everyone from the plane and did not let them back on until the man was removed a second time in a stretcher.

United Airlines lost hundreds of millions of dollars in marketcapital Tuesday, according to MarketWatch. Almost as bad as the incident, was the company's attempts to respond to it. The chief executive's first attempt at a public apology, Monday, did not fare any better.He apologized not for the man's treatment, but"for having to re-accommodate these customers" . Chicago police were also criticized for an early statement, as reported by NBC, claiming the injured man "fell."By Monday afternoon, the Chicago Department of Aviation a different agency said it had placedan officer in the video on leave pending an investigation. "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 approved by the Department," the agency said in a statement. Then came Munoz's company letter, in which he calledthe crew's conduct on the plane as "established procedures." "I deeply regret this situation arose," Munozwrote, according to the Associated Press. But "I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right." In his third attempt to address the spiraling crisis, Munoz offered no more defenses: "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 this way. I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right. It's never too late to do the right thing. I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what's broken so this never happens again.

Questions:

1. Identify the ethical issues presented by this case?
2. Identify the risks and implications of these issues and how they affect the stakeholders by referring to the principles of ethics that are relevant to this case.
3. Propose some actions/solutions that could potentially prevent situations like this in future.
4. Evaluate your proposed solutions vis--vis the principles of ethics and social responsibility that you have learned, and explain how your proposed solutions could uphold those principles.