Chicago, IL…The United Airlines CEO at least took it upon himself to offer a statement directly on the incident. He rightly assumed that leaving this to his PR Department would have amounted to cruel and unusual punishment of PR people. It seems no one was willing to accept the vouchers and inducements offered. The poor medical doctor who had purchased a ticket and was already seated drew the short straw and was removed. His claims of patients to see, etc didn’t seem to carry enough weight.

“This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened. We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.” – Oscar Munoz, CEO, United Airlines