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Airline CEO apologises for 're-accommodating' man thrown off plane

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz says his company has reached out to the ejected passenger in an effort to “resolve the situation”.

video Twitter Twitter

THE CEO OF the airline at the centre of a controversy, which saw a video of a passenger being forcibly removed from a flight go viral, has apologised for the “upsetting event”.

Oscar Munoz, chief executive of United Airlines, has said sorry for “having to re-accommodate those customers”.

Yesterday’s flight, bound for Louisville, Kentucky from Chicago, saw a number of dramatic videos circulating on social media of an Asian man screaming in distress while being dragged from his seat on the plane.

An administrative error had apparently seen the flight overbooked. With four seats needed to enable United employees to make their shifts on flights the following day, airline employees asked for volunteers to have their tickets re-assigned to another flight.

When no-one made themselves available, the Asian man, understood to be a doctor, was one of those forcibly removed from the plane. He was seen to be bleeding profusely from his face after hitting his head off his chair’s armrest during the incident.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United,” Munoz’s statement reads.

I apologise 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.

The statement from the CEO is marginally less confrontational than a previous missive on the subject from the airline which simply said that when the man refused to volunteer “law enforcement was asked to come to the gate”.

Fellow passengers said on Twitter that the man who was removed was taken from the plane alongside his wife.

It’s understood that he is a doctor who was unwilling to leave the plane as he was due at his hospital for work the next day.

A second video showed him, still bleeding from the previous altercation, somehow managing to re-enter the plane while repeatedly saying “I need to go home”.

Read: Thousands gather for funeral of policeman killed in Westminster attack

Read: Arkansas wants to execute a record seven men in 11 days

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:38 PM

    Must send some of me with the wife. She hasn’t moved a muscle in years.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:35 PM

    Sick feckers!

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    Mute John Hayes
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    Aug 17th 2015, 10:07 PM

    Lad working with me was a supervisor in his last job. Russian lad working for him says the mother died needed to go home all above board so far. He returned two weeks later got chatting to your man. Would you like to see my mother he says ? Ah go on so show me the pictures. There they were all pictures with the dead mother in the casket giving thumbs up the works. He said he was disturbed for weeks after it. Some weird folk them Russians.

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:43 PM

    The sooner this planet is taken over by a superior alien race who wipe out most of the population leaving only a rag-tag bunch of intelligent survivors, the better.

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    Mute Ian O'Donovan
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:58 PM

    Is it just me or are there an increasing number of sociopaths in our society?

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    Mute Brian O'Donnell
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:33 PM

    In Russia selfie takes you.

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    Mute Dreana O'Gorman
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    Aug 17th 2015, 10:24 PM

    The strange thing is, when photography first developed, there was a disturbing fad of people posing with dead loved ones. Still hasn’t stopped being creepy.

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    Mute Brian Kearns
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    Aug 18th 2015, 2:08 PM

    That “Fad” was family members posing one last time with the deceased. These stupid B******s pose with any dead person, Just for kicks.
    A female paramedic was sacked last year,After being found posing with the dead in the back of her Ambulance .

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    Mute Jacques_DaCosta
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    Aug 17th 2015, 7:56 PM

    How long before someone commits murder to win the ‘Selfie with Corpse’ competition?

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    Mute stephen
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:03 PM

    I had to read that headline twice, looks like I’ll have to increase my medication or stop reading thejournal.

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    Mute Joanna
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:16 PM

    Well that’s just creepy.

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    Mute Vinny Murphy
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    Aug 17th 2015, 8:06 PM

    From Russia with Love…

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    Mute Ronan McDermott
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    Aug 18th 2015, 7:06 AM

    That’s Russia for you. Jeez what will they have next . Weird, distasteful and bizarre whatever way you look at it

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