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Videos were posted on Twitter and spread online rapidly showing a passenger being dragged on the floor from United Airlines flight with his glasses sliding down his face and shirt rising above his midriff and bleeding from his mouth.
The story was simple. A United Airlines flight asked four passengers to leave the plane and rescheduled their trips because there were no sufficient seats for crew members. The passenger in the video refused to get off the aircraft and managed to board again after being removed once because he was a doctor and had a patient to visit at the destination the next day, thus the United Airlines employees and security officers used force to drag this doctor off the flight.
According to the Oversales 14 CFR Part 250 released by U.S. Department of Transportation, in the event of oversold flight, by offering rewards and compensations, airlines have right to solicit volunteers for denied boarding; if no sufficient volunteers showed up, airlines may deny boarding to other passengers in accordance with their boarding priority. This arrangement is usually negotiated before passengers are boarding the plane; airlines rarely request passengers to get off the plan after all passengers have boarded although they are allowed to.
In addition, according to relevant laws and precedents, the customer and airline have entered into a contract while the customer booked an air ticket of the airline. The contract empowers the airline to take over customers¡¯ seats in consideration of compensation and re-schedule of customers¡¯ trips. The airline also has power to decide when and where its employees shall perform certain tasks. This also gives the airline right to take customers¡¯ seat for its own employees¡¯ use.
Overbooking is also allowed in China. However, law only protects reasonable behaviors. The problem in this case is that the doctor is over-mistreated, which is beyond the scope permitted by law or ethics. If you are unfortunately denied boarding, you can ask the airline to provide a statement that specifies the reason of excluding you from the flight. You also have right to claim compensation for the denying boarding. If no or few compensation is provided, you can negotiate with the Complaint department of the airline. If the result is less than satisfactory, you can bring a lawsuit to safeguard your legitimate rights and interests.