Airlines are responsible for making passangers feel comfortable and safe. Their job is to transport passengers safely to their destination and to treat their passangers with the utmost care and respect. While overbooking can usually be an issue, passengers are usually lured into leaving the flight through the use of monetary benefits that prompt people to volunteer to leave from the plane. What happens when a flight is overbooked and asks for volunteers, but nobody decides to volunteer to leave the plane?
Recently, the United Airlines flight 3411 experienced an issue with overbooking its flight and asked for passengers to volunteer to leave the flight with monetary benefits and hotel stays along with a Monday night flight as a lure for more volunteers. When the passengers declined the offer to volunteer, the airlines decided to take measures into their own hands and randomly select four passengers to leave the flight. Room needed to be made for four United Airlines Employers to take their place on the flight. Time Magazine stated, "The man had refused to leave his seat after United officials randomly selected four passengers to switch flights to allow four United employees to take their places on board." According to another article written in Time Magazine, "This situation was unfortunately compounded when one of the passengers were politely asked to deplane refused and it became necessary to contact Chicago Aviation Security Officers to help." In this video, one can notice how aggressively this man was "escorted" out of his seat and taken off the flight. Innocent bystanders watched and recorded as the man was literally dragged down the aisle off of the aircraft. According to time magazine's other article under aviation, it says that the male passenger had claimed that he was a doctor and refused to leave the flight because he had patients to attend to.
However, an email from the CEO of United Airlines was later published claiming that, “The incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department." Additionally, the email had gone on to claim that the situation would be looked further into and that the officer involved in the scandal would be placed on leave until further notice. For more information on this matter, one can look to Time Magazine and articles revolving around the airline scandal.
What baffles me about this whole situation is not just the fact that this innocent man was taken off the plane by force and treated disrespectfully after he had declined to give up his seat, but the fact that many other passengers on the plane decided to watch the whole spectacle take place. As witnessed by the video, one can notice just how many people were actually sitting down just watching and recording the whole event taking place. In the entire video, not once did a bystander get up and try to defend this helpless man from such brutal treatment. Instead, they decided that it was necessary to record this whole spectacle so that the world could see what was happening instead of taking action at that exact moment.
Has our world really become a place where recording a video of an event seems to make more of a difference than actually taking action when necessary and defending those who are helpless and unable to defend themselves? Have we really spread awareness of something if we were just bystanders to the whole situation and decided to do or say nothing whatsoever? Granted that multiple people voiced their complaints of what was going on in the aircraft, not one person decided to get up and help that man or defend him in any way. These people speak of outrage and disgust at the situation, but decided to stand still. Are we not guilty of the same crime if we decide to just watch what is happening instead of choosing to defend someone? Is it not the same thing as watching something horrid happen before your eyes and choosing to stay silent because you do not want to be involved in a scandal?
Humanity has changed simply because we have let it change. We have allowed ourselves to believe recording a video on a device means that we have done our part in this world. We have allowed ourselves to think that we have done our part by showing the world what is happening by idly sitting in our seats and doing nothing about it. Change does not come from inaction. Change comes from action and society as a whole, has failed to make a change. Why did people decide to voice their outrage but take no action? Why did nobody get up and say that they would leave in place of the man being dragged out instead of just watching?
