O’HARE — Videos taken by passengers aboard a United Airlines flight Sunday night show a man being forced from his seat and dragged off the plane by police after the airline overbooked his flight.
United Airlines flight 3411, an Embraer jet flown through the airline’s United Express arm, was scheduled to depart from O’Hare International Airport at 5:40 p.m. headed to Lousiville International Airport when the company asked four passengers to voluntarily leave the plane so that four nonworking crew members could travel to Louisville, according to several travelers who posted about the incident online.
Passengers were offered a hotel stay and compensation ranging from $400 to $800, in accordance with U.S. Transportation Department rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers who miss flights due to the controversial practice of overbooking.
Passenger Audra Bridges, who posted a video of the account on Facebook, said that when no one volunteered to give up a seat, the airline said a computer would randomly select passengers to be removed from the flight.
Included in that selection was an adult man who passengers said identified himself to airport staff as a doctor.
Bridges said the man became upset and explained that he had patients to see in Louisville in the morning.
Video shows several law enforcement officers gathered around the man’s seat before one man lunges at the seated passenger, who lets out a loud wail.
Police dragged the man, who appeared to have blood coming from his mouth and whose glasses were askew, out of his seat and down the aisle by his arms as other passengers watched in horror.
Chicago police said the department was not involved in the incident. The officers and security personnel are with the city’s Aviation Department.