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Unsettling video captures United passenger being forcibly removed from overbooked flight

Space had to be made for United crew members, according to those onboard.

Christine Wang

on April 10, 2017

Footage surfaced on Twitter on Sunday of a man being forcibly removed from an overbooked United flight going from Chicago to Louisville.

Tyler Bridges, another passenger on the plane, live-tweeted the incident and recorded a video of the passenger being removed. The video shows the passenger yelling, struggling, and then finally being dragged down the aisle.

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Jayse Anspach, another fellow passenger, also shared video footage at a different angle. From Anspach's video, the passenger can be seen with blood on his face as he is dragged away.

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As of now, details of why the incident occurred come primarily from Bridges and Anspachs' tweets. According to them, United asked for volunteers to give up their seats so that United crew members who had to work the next day could be accommodated.

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After no one volunteered, passengers were selected by the crew to give up their seats. The man in the video and his wife were chosen. However, he claimed he had to stay on the flight because of the fact that he had patients to see in the morning.

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United has issued a statement regarding the incident, according to Chicago local news:

Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.

UPDATE: Apr. 10 9:49 a.m. PT:

United released another short statement, from CEO Oscar Munoz via Twitter, in which he apologized for "having to re-accommodate these passengers."

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Christine Wang

Christine is a Web Culture Intern at Mashable. She has previously written for FanSided and Saturday Down South. She has a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego and an M.S. from Hunter College. Before she started writing, she worked in education as a teacher and school leader for four years. Her special talents include being able to quote The Office on command, playing non-stop Overwatch for hours, and composing only the wittiest of Tweets (her own opinion).