Oscar Munoz — who is the chief executive officer of United Airlines — finally issued a statement where United Airlines takes full responsibility for an incident this past Sunday where one passenger reportedly was very upset at being one of four passengers to be selected to leave the aircraft involuntarily.
The passenger — a male doctor who is 69 years old and needed to be at a hospital the next day — was forcibly removed from the aircraft by members of law enforcement, which resulted in injury to the passenger. The law enforcement officer in question who physically pulled the passenger from his seat was relieved of his duties for now.
United Airlines Takes Full Responsibility For Passenger Dragged Off Airplane
Here is the letter, which was posted earlier today at United Hub:
Dear Team,
The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened. Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way.
I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right.
It’s never too late to do the right thing. 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.
Sincerely,
Oscar
An apology, a promise, and an acceptance of full responsibility — all in one statement: while this has been the most sincere response since the incident occurred, is it too little too late?
Summary
Thanks to technology, we live in a world where everyone is being watched — not so much by governments or by “big brother”, as inferred by the classic novel 1984 by George Orwell — but by each other. While that may sound frightening, at least one positive aspect is that proving wrongdoing definitively with video or photographs is easier these days where people who try to get away with something they should not be doing will more likely be caught…
…and to put corporate “spin” on anything these days is thankfully becoming more and more difficult. This incident proves that; and hopefully, some lessons have been learned.
Oscar Munoz. Source: The LinkedIn profile of Oscar Munoz.
