United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz sought to clean up his PR mess by issuing a second statement commenting on the graphic video of a passenger being forcefully removed from one of their flights.
“I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right,” Mr. Munoz wrote in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
On a flight from Chicago to Louisville, passengers captured disturbing video taken of a man being dragged through the narrow aisles of the plane, his face bloodied, glasses askew and his shirt pulled up over his stomach.
The airline had randomly selected the man to be bumped off the flight because of overbooking. When he refused to leave, security responded with force.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” the statement continued. “I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what’s broken so this never happens again. This will include a thorough review of crew movement, our policies for incentivizing volunteers in these situations, how we handle oversold situations and an examination of how we partner with airport authorities and local law enforcement. We’ll communicate the results of our review by April 30th.
“I promise you we will do better,” Mr. Munoz wrote.
The statement follows a social media firestorm where Mr. Munoz was criticized for trivializing the situation, apologizing for “having to re-accommodate these passengers.”
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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