The CEO of United Airlines clarified Tuesday that Flight 3411 was not overbooked and apologized about the passenger forcibly removed from the plane for refusing to give up his seat after earlier blaming the passenger in the incident.
"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," United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement Tueday, USA Today reported. "No one should ever be mistreated this way."
In an email to employees Monday evening, Munoz had called the passenger "disruptive and belligerent" and said his employees "followed established procedures."
Although United originally said the flight was overbooked, Munoz said Tuesday that all 70 seats were filled when a situation arose in which four crew members needed to be transported to Louisville for the next day. United chose four passengers at random to be removed from the flight, but the fourth person, David Dao, refused to leave and was dragged off the plane.
The removal turned violent when a security guard yanked Dao out of his seat and he hit an armrest, bloodying his face.
The incident, which happened at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, was captured on videos that quickly went viral on social media and prompted widespread outrage from the public after hundreds of millions had viewed them.
United’s stock price even fell 1.1 percent Tuesday due to the backlash, which represented $255 million in market capitalization, according to Market Watch. Part of the international loss could be attributed to videos in which Dao claimed he was targeted for being Chinese, prompting some to call for a boycott.
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