Passengers on United Express Flight 3411 will get a refund, United Airlines said Wednesday. That's the Chicago-to-Louisville flight in which a 69-year-old man was dragged off the plane by airport police officers because he didn't want to give up his seat. She also wrote a letter to United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz to raise concerns over the violent incident.
By Tuesday afternoon, nearly two days after the Sunday evening events, Munoz issued another apology.
On Wednesday, United Airlines confirmed to ABC News that it was compensating all passengers of the flight for the full price of their tickets.
"It's sort of a self-immolation and makes you wonder about his choice as CEO", Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, said of Munoz's handling of the crisis.
Dao refused to be removed from the flight and screamed as a security officer yanked him out of his seat and dragged him down the aisle by his arms.
The practice lets airlines keep fares low while managing the rate of no-shows on any particular route, said Vaughn Jennings, spokesman for Airlines for America, which represents most of the big USA carriers.
"I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right", Munoz said in a statement, reversing earlier decisions not to apologise directly for the incident. Dao only started to get mildly upset when the second officer came on the plane after he continued to refuse to leave.
Federal rules require that before airlines can bump passengers from a flight they must seek volunteers - the carriers generally offer travel vouchers.
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Lalu attacked the BJP, saying that Advani was made a "scapegoat" (bali ka bakra) in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. The court even suggested that had the CBI done enough in 2001, the Supreme Court would not have been required to step in.
Shares of United Continental were about flat in morning trading.
Tyler Bridges, a passenger on Sunday's flight who posted a video to Twitter, said in a telephone interview on Monday that "it felt like something the world needed to see".
A spokesman for Corboy & Demetrio, one of the firms acting on behalf of the doctor, said he is still being treated in hospital but one of his relatives is expected to give a news conference on Thursday in Chicago.
Munoz now says that this was a mistake, telling GMA, "We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off.to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger; we can't do that". According to NBC News, he's already filed an emergency bill of discovery in an IL court, aimed at requiring United to preserve any documentation of the incident, including passenger and crew manifests and any surveillance video.
Dubai-based Emirates released an ad after video went viral of a United passenger being forcefully removed that toyed with the Chicago-based carrier's longtime slogan.
In a statement, Munoz called the episode "an upsetting event". The Cummingses both said Dao never raised his voice when speaking to the officers and airline officials, and that reports that Dao acted belligerent are simply not true. At one point, passengers said, Dao hit his head on an armrest.
"Every day passengers are being "bumped off" flights", Christie wrote.
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