Quote:
Originally Posted by Mick
Would you say the passengers who witnessed this also become eligible for compensation as they looked physically distressed ?
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Everyone that was inconvenienced deserves something from this. Make no mistake, United Airlines set the events in motion with their shoddy practices. There were several better ways out of this, starting with their overbooking policies, moving onto higher compensation before calling in the 'repo men' or simply just prioritising this man because he was a doctor that had hospital schedules he couldn't fulfill if he left the flight. If you upped that benefit for getting off, someone will have eventually jumped. Job done, far cheaper than what it's going to cost them now. This wasn't a direct result of simply overbooking though, everyone had a seat, they wanted their own staff on the plane to occupy those seats for their scheduled employment at the destination and AFAIK they refused to take off until four people had given up their seats. It's the fact that is legal that's annoying.
There needs to be two battles here though, the one against UA that caused this, and the one against three men that illegally assaulted a man on a plane. I have a feeling the latter will just vanish if UA put up compensation and everybody accepts it as case closed, those three still want arrested and charged with assault.
Seems to be no solid confirmation whether these lot were Police or Security Officers, it makes no difference of course, it's still unjust force, it's just that the Police tend to get away with it more often than not.
Obviously failed to mention, Police or Security's employers will also be dragged into this now. I'd expect the three to be instantly dismissed if they're Security and suspended if Police.
If they actually removed the guy without assaulting him, the most we'd have right now is disgruntled passenger ejected from flight, something that sadly occurs daily thanks to overbooking practices. It only takes one incident to blow that all up and that's happened.