I don't believe there is any "more" to this story. He did not acquiesce immediately to their request for him to deplane, and the airline escalated the situation very quickly. He doesn't have to have done anything unreasonable to garner that sort of treatment. The immediate no questions asked backing up of airline positions by the law is the root of the issue here.
I once had a flight cancelled going through Denver with United. I took the time to walk the distance to the furthest united help desk, away from the gates of the just screwed over passengers, knowing it would be a shorter line. An hour into standing in line, I had just reached the stanchions to start the maze run to the help desk. A united employee came out, and dropped the rope across the stanchions literally right in front of me. I asked her what she was doing, she said this help desk was now closed, go to the other. The other is almost a mile away, and I could reach out and touch the line for that station. I told her politely that it would be more appropriate to close her station after they dealt with myself and the other 20 or so people still lined up outside of the stanchions, as we had all been waiting patiently for more than an hour in that line. Her first and only reply was "sir, don't make me call the police". And I had to back off, knowing that if she did at the very least I would be removed from the airport no questions asked. What other industry gets there customer complaints quashed by the local PD? Total bs, but what you have to live with flying these days, they can do anything under the guise of safety.

asking me? Tons

"The flight was delayed three hours as a result of the incident, he added."

So after all of this their precious employees didn't get to their destinations on time?

Priceless!!!!

Back when my wife and I were doing the long distance thing my wife was guilty of taking the incentive... she would plant her little rear in a seat and they wold start asking for volunteers, when the incentive got to be a couple hundred bucks she would take it. I was mildly annoying to me because our weekends together were valuable (but the extra $$ paid for an additional trip).

However on a flight back to her home she took the deal, landed after midnight... her friend who picked her up was none too please about the late night pickup... they haven't spoken since.

We only used Alaska and Jet Blue LGB to PDX

My last commercial flight was before 9-11-01. I am quite happy that my lifestyle gives me the luxury of having nowhere I need or want to be badly enough to board a plane.

Nothing wrong with offering passengers an incentive to take a later flight.

They blew it when they didn't accomplish that....without using force.

Someone on that plane would have taken a later flight - for the right $number$.

Where's that Sales Manager when you need him?

I think that when the police yanked him out of his seat and smashed his mouth bloody, then he became agitated. Which does not seem like a completely surprising reaction.

yep. entitled people. They pay $100-200 and expect royalty service. Get ticked off by any formal approach other than a smile. Entitlement is the worst thing in our society. I find it hard to believe excessive force was used for no reason. Especially on a plane full of audience. Doctor China went off crazy, started arguing, and got his ass kicked out of the plane. Plain and simple. Misbehave, you get the horn. I would totally look for a manager and enjoy the compensation. Instead of making myself look embarrassed in front of the whole world.

Clearly you have never dealt with the Chicago PD. Speaking of entitlement, they are accustomed to having all of their misdeeds erased and buried by fellow officers, be it starting a bar fight, DUI, or even murder.

That's possible.

But I think it's also possible that he made himself a "target" simply by refusing to leave the seat.

Airline tells him to leave, he stays, now you have a standoff.

Airline calls police. Police generally don't back down (any police, but sounds like Chicago PD especially), and that was that.

Seems entirely plausible.

In the officers' eyes, there was plenty of reason.

They demanded the passenger to leave, passenger did not do it voluntarily. And when they tried to gently pull him out, he resisted.

What more reason do you think most police officers think they need to administer a beat down?

no i have not dealt with Chicago PD.

No no, I was trying to say the same thing. I believe that's exactly what happened. You can even see him screaming like a ***** and resisting on the video.

If y'all see me being dragged down the aisle of a plane....they will be dragging me TO my seat :). Well...that's my plan....ten years and counting....

I have been on the one side, I got a free trip first class to London once, my female friend worked for the airline, and got to watch some French woman get bumped because of me. She didn't know it was me or even why but she was pissed. It didn't bother me.

Just bad luck for that guy. What's worse is now he is going to get the star TSA treatment each time he goes through security now.
We've had people get extremely pissed when told to get off the airplane. The only right thing for the airline to do is to deny boarding before a passenger gets on the airplane. It never ends well once they have a seat. Then throw in alcohol... or drugs...or getting to sit beside this treat...http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1491943804.jpg

i'm with you AB i think you covered it. I don't think there's any more to the story but will add my 2 cents just for the heck of it.

I'm an almost million miler on UAL. I've seen them act pretty deplorably (but not as bad as this) and I've seen them go above and beyond- more often the latter or I wouldn't fly them.

IMO this was a gate agent who made a big mistake and then compounded it. It got further compounded when the cops acted like thugs. Then Oscar Munoz, who ironically just received an award for being a great communicator, compounded it even more by blaming the passenger and apologizing for the "re-accommodation".

I'm sorry Herr Weinstein. The Fuhrer hast requested that we take your house and your belongings. Not to worry you'll be "re-accommodated" at our lovely hotel in Treblinka.

What a colossal F/U. This will be Harvard Business School fodder for years.

And the doctor's background has absolutely nothing to do with it.....how he acted that day is all that matters. Pouring crap on him is like pouring gasoline on a fire and expecting it to go out- I pity the lawyer who tries that in open court. Let's hope UAL settles this with a hefty package and an NDA and then retrains some gate agents.

I understood it to be a private security firm, not the PD.
I read an article where United said that they max is supposed to be $1350, and they weren't sure why that flight didn't go that high.
Yeah, that's the semi-crazy thing, it wasn't actually due to over booking, but was due to employees needing to get home. I almost understand that since I believe the deal is that those employees needed to be at home the next morning to be on a flight out of their home city. If they didn't get home, then that would screw up a whole slew of flights the next day, but booting a paying customer (unless the guy was a standby customer which seems unlikely) for employees seems like a bad idea.
Which is funny since I understand the guy to be a Vietnamese who's lived in the states for the past 20 years.

I'm betting the guy will get paid...

At least I hope so. This needs to sting a bit for United.