United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz said the passenger seen in a viral video who was dragged, bloodied off his company’s plane on Sunday had “defied” security officers and had become “disruptive and belligerent,” even as some lawmakers called for an investigation into the incident.
(FOX)- Munoz issued a statement Monday to employees defending the airline’s widely derided actions in forcibly removing a passenger from a Chicago flight bound for Louisville.
The man who was taken off the plane has not been named, but he identified himself as a doctor during the debacle and another passenger said the man said he was of Chinese descent. The man was asked to leave in order to accommodate the seating of several United crew members.
“This situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers we politely asked to deplane refused and it became necessary to contact Chicago Aviation Security Officers to help,” Munoz wrote.
“I deplore the violent removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight this weekend,” Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said in a Monday statement. She was set on Tuesday to call for a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing into the matter, The Washington Examiner reported.
“Airline passengers must have protections against such abusive treatment,” Norton said.
Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., also decried the man’s treatment, with Boyle joining Holmes in calling for an investigation.