UNITED STATES—Wow, wow, wow. Have you seen the video of the United Airlines flight that was posted all over social media? Man it seems like every single week, a new company is facing a media crisis. Last week it was Pepsi, however, this one for United Airlines is one that is strange, upsetting and completely unacceptable.
For those not in the know, video was posted of a man who was left bleeding and being dragged from a flight on a United Airlines plane. The video is beyond disturbing for a number of reasons. For starters, the guy is visibly bleeding and it doesn’t look like just a scratch or cut, I’m talking about actual blood coming from the mouth and around the face. Then, the video depicts this guy, whose body appeared lifeless, being dragged off the plane as other passengers watched in horror. I was simply stunned!
So let’s rewind a bit to find out precisely what transpired. Apparently United Airlines overbooked a flight, and needed passengers to volunteer to remove themselves from the flight for employees who needed to get on the flight for work-related purposes. The passenger, who was selected was a doctor, who did not want to get off the flight as he had patients that he needed to tend to. Now, this is troubling for me because so many companies’ not just airlines, but transportation venues overbook buses, trains or planes all the time.
Like seriously, you need to realize that you should do your best to NOT overbook. You know you have only so many seats on a flight or a bus or a train, so stop being greedy in your goal of trying to make money without causing a bit of uproar along the way people. I mean seriously what the hell. If I was a passenger on that flight, I would be hesitant to give up my seat that I paid for without the following: 1) being told why I have to give up my seat 2) what the airline company planes to do to compensate me for the inconvenience 3) what other perks I can see as a result of this unexpected issue.
I mean plenty of people travel for work-related business. You can’t just expect people to give up a seat without hesitation. The funny thing is no one on this plane was willing to give up their seats, which forced the airline to randomly select passengers to give up their seats. Yeah, that is quite touchy because plenty of people might argue they were removed because of their race of even their gender. So United Airlines is playing with tricky territory to say the least.
On top of that, United Airlines issued a statement apologizing, but not really apologizing people. I mean I cannot fathom why people release statements without being sincere. Your company followed protocol, ok, but at what cost. What if this guy was indeed seriously hurt or killed because of what transpired on the plane? What about the other passengers? What if things got so intense that others were injured? Yeah, those are questions that I do not believe were fully acknowledged or considered by the airline. Yes, the police removing an unruly passenger I can totally understand if that is exactly what transpired. Seems we’ve only seen glimpses of the video and I’m not certain if we’ve got the full story.
However, with social media, United Airlines is experiencing similar backlash to what Pepsi endured last week with celebrities voicing their opinion and noting a boycott of the airline company. Celebrities do have a bit of power, so if they’re anti or pro this, it’s easy for them to get their message across to their fans and the public. I mean did you see that skit late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel put together making fun of the United Airlines incident? Genius and pure hilarity people!
The situation should have been handled with more care and caution by United Airlines, to allow such madness to erupt on a plane would have anyone concerned about utilizing the airline for travel, I know I’m second guessing them now.
