Originally Posted by
hummingbear
United Airlines didn’t beat this guy up, although they can fairly be accused of contracting out their work without providing adequate guidance on how to address a situation like this.
The contract airline didn’t beat this guy up, although they can fairly be criticized for requesting law enforcement intervention when a more generous compensatory offer would likely have found another willing volunteer.
United Airlines agents worked the flight as they do for all UAL and UX flights at ORD. But, that really doesn't matter because the UAL policies at the time were no different than any other US airline's procedures. This could have happened on any of them and it would have been handled very similarly.
The cops didn’t beat this guy up although questions should be asked about whether the use of contract security in place of law enforcement followed established guidelines and whether those guidelines were or are appropriate.
They were not contract security. They were employed by the local government as law enforcement. They were trained by the Chicago Police Department. When Chicago PD received a call at O'Hare, these are the people that they sent to handle it. At the time, none of the tenants at the airport knew they were anything other than Chicago Airport Police.
20/20 hindsight tells us that the best way to have handled the situation would have been to deplane everyone and deal with it at the gate. You might still have ended up with a standoff but removing the audience would have taken away some of his steam.
Bottom line is, then or today, when he refused to exit the airplane when directed, any chance of him flying on that flight was gone. An airline is not going to transport a passenger who won't follow instructions.