https://youtu.be/p7pM8IyxpTc
Following the incident with United Airlines last month in which Dr. David Dao was violently ejected from an overbooked flight — who later settled for an “amicable” (read: lucrative) settlement — it seems like stories like this are now popping up left and right. Just last week we told you about a man who was forced off a Delta flight for getting up and using the restroom while the plane was delayed on the runway, and once again, here, Delta is the culprit.
In the above video posted to YouTube on May 3, “Brian S.” captured the scene of Delta personnel removing him and his wife and their two young children, one and two-years-old, off a flight from Maui to LAX on April 23. The reason, again, was due to overbooking on Delta’s part. Things get out of hand just 10 seconds into the video when he refuses to give up his seat, and the flight attendant coldly informs him that they would be committing a federal offense and that he and his wife will be thrown in jail and their children put in foster care if they do not comply.
The problem seems to stem from the fact that the family had purchased the seat for one of their children, but then allowed their other child to occupy the seat. He explains, in the YouTube description:
They oversold the flight and asked us to give up a seat we purchased for my older son that my younger son was sitting in. You will hear them lie to me numerous times to get my son out of the seat. The end result was we were all kicked off the flight. They then filled our 4 seats with 4 customers that had tickets but no seats. They oversold the flight. When will this all stop? It was midnight in Maui and we had to get a hotel and purchase new tickets the following day.
Eventually in the video, a Delta employee informs Brian that if he and his family do not remove themselves, they’ll be forced to deplane the entire flight. When asked what they’re supposed to do with two infants in an airport at midnight with nowhere to go, the employee informs him, “At this point you guys are on your own.”
Realizing that they’re out of options, eventually the family agrees to get up and exit the flight. This seems to be just the beginning of Delta’s problems however, as the video has gotten over 60,000 views and counting in less than 24 hours, at the time of this writing. When are airlines going to realize that they can’t pull these awful shenanigans anymore, when literally the entire world is watching them?
(Via Reddit)