The Absolute Worst Way to Handle an "Overbooked" Flight

United Airlines forced a "randomly selected" passenger to give up his seat. It did not end well.



Let me get this straight. United Airlines overbooks a flight, and in an attempt to make room for some airline employees, they start picking random people to boot off the flight. And that's how we got these horrifying videos of an Asian man being violently wrenched from his seat, knocked unconscious and dragged off the plane.

Passenger Forcibly Removed From United Flight, Prompting Outcry

On Sunday evening, passengers on United flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville had already boarded when the airline asked for volunteers to take another flight the next day to make room for four United staff members who needed seats. Big surprise, they got no takers. The airline offered $400 and a free hotel, then upped the offer to $800, but still, nobody wanted off. That's when they went ahead and just selected four passengers to eject from the flight -- including the soon-to-knocked unconscious 69-year-old man.

An airline representative told him he had been "randomly" selected to be taken off the flight. The man refused to give up his seat, saying he was a doctor and was scheduled to see patients the next day. He was insistent that would not get off the plane and, according to one witness, called his lawyer. The passenger was also heard saying he was being singled out for removal because he was Chinese.

That's when United called the cops.

Witnesses say the man began screaming when three law enforcement officers wrestled him out of seat. During the struggle, the man's face apparently struck an armrest and he was knocked unconscious. Video taken by passengers shows the man limp and bleeding from the mouth as officers dragged him down the aisle.

Several of videos taken during the incident were posted and shared on social media:

Unruly passenger arrested after racist rant diverts flight

United flight from Sydney to San Francisco re-routed to Auckland after passenger loses his shit.



A New Year's Day flight from Sydney to San Francisco had to be diverted after a man launched into a racist, homophobic tirade, verbally abusing other passengers and the cabin crew.

Passenger arrested after United Airlines flight to San Francisco diverts to Auckland

Witnesses say the unnamed 42-year-old American passenger became angry when two men seated on either side of him, who were described as being of South Asian descent, spoke to each other over him.

In a video of the incident, posted on Facebook by another passenger, the man can be heard yelling at a flight attendant, "If you guys treat people right on these things, you see two last names the same, don't put someone else in the middle of them. I'm not yelling... you want to hear me fucking yelling."

"Do you know how cool it would be to have the airplane turned around because of me?" taking his rant to the next level of asshole. "You are going to do that? You do that? I'm being so impolite aren't I? Fat ass."

Richard Marx subdues unruly passenger on Korean Air flight

Asians Behaving Badly... Unruly Air Passenger Edition!



On Tuesday, during a Korean Air flight from Hanoi to Seoul, a passenger got unruly and had to be restrained. It's a good thing Richard Marx was on board to help out. Yes, Grammy-winning singer Richard Marx helped restrain a passenger who became violent and attacked the flight's crew and passengers.

Singer Richard Marx Subdues Unruly Passenger Aboard Korean Air Flight

Marx and his wife Daisy Fuentes were on the flight to Korea when a guy sitting in the next row "got crazy." According to Fuentes, who posted photos of the incident on social media, the agitated passenger started pushing female flight attendants and pulling them by the hair. That's when Marx got involved.

The singer/songwriter, known for such hits as "Endless Summer Nights," "Right Here Waiting" and "Now and Forever" stepped up to help to restrain the passenger, who had to be subdued and secured with a rope. The entire ordeal apparently lasted four hours, with guy getting loose from his restraints three times.

The Daily Show's Tips for Flying While Muslim

Hasan Minhaj demonstrates how Muslims can fly without terrifying their fellow travelers.



Ah, Flying While Brown. After a college student was recently kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight simply for speaking Arabic -- shout out to all you racist, idiotic air passengers who get freaked by the sight of a brown face and the sound of a "foreign" tongue -- The Daily Show with Trevor Noah's Hasan Minhaj made a handy pre-flight video demonstrating how Muslims can fly without terrifying their fellow travelers.

"If you speak Arabic, don't. It's a scary language." Hasan advises. "But don't not speak either, because that's also super suspicious."

Woman says Virgin Atlantic staff did nothing after passenger called her a "f**king Chinese pig"

Now, Virgin Atlantic, feel the wrath of Chinese netizens.



Virgin is facing the wrath of Chinese netizens after a passenger on a recent Virgin Atlantic flight said she was racially abused by a white male passenger -- who called her, among other things, a "f**cking Chinese pig" -- then threatened with removal from the plane by a flight attendant after she reported the abuse.

Virgin trashed on social media over China racism claims

A Chinese passenger named Liu Wei says a white man called her racist names, including "you f**cking Chinese pig," after the boarded Virgin Atlantic Flight 250 from London Heathrow to Shanghai on March 1. But instead of receiving assistance from the cabin crew, they threatened to throw her off the flight.

Liu later recounted her experience in an angry post on Weibo, which went viral and gained the attention millions of Chinese readers, setting off an onslaught of outraged messages to Virgin Atlantic's social media accounts.

Waris Ahluwalia flies home, ending standoff over turban

Aeromexico apologizes to Sikh American actor, promising changes in security procedure.



Victory. On Wednesday morning, after a two-day standoff in Mexico City, Sikh American actor, designer and activist Waris Ahluwalia boarded an Aeromexico flight back home to the United States.

Sikh Actor Is Allowed to Fly Home to U.S. Wearing His Turban

The airline initially barred Ahluwalia from flying because he refused to remove his turban, an article of his Sikh faith. But after Waris took a stand, calling for better sensitivity and training regarding passengers with religious headwear -- attracting a ton of media attention in the process -- Aeromexico relented.

After spending two extra days grounded in Mexico City, Ahulwalia was allowed to board a new Aeroméxico flight without removing his turban for a security check. In addition to issuing an apology to Ahluwalia, the airline agreed to initiate staff training about how to deal with passengers wearing religious head coverings.

Waris Ahluwalia barred from flight because of his turban

Sikh actor and designer denied entry into Aeromexico flight back to New York.



On Monday, celebrity Sikh American fashion designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia was barred from boarding his AeroMexico flight home from Mexico City to New York City because he refused to remove his turban.

Turban-Wearing Sikh American Actor Is Barred From Aeroméxico

Ahluwalia, who wears a turban in observance of his Sikh faith, says he was flagged for a secondary security check. He was held back until all other passengers had boarded the 7:15 AM Aeroméxico flight out of Mexico City. Security personnel searched his bag, swabbed him and patted him down.

When they asked Ahluwalia to take off his turban, he refused.

Wanna see some geishas? Fly Air France, apparently.

For the record, this is not a good way to get me to fly your airline.



I think I've generally trained my eyes to ignore the paid content that gets inserted on to my Facebook... but I couldn't help but do a double take when I spotted this craptastic ad for Air France.

Yes, I love seeing pointless cultural drag used to hock air travel. The ad, part of Air France's "France is in the Air" campaign, employs the usual geisha imagery with a white model rocking some yellowface for that Orientalist zing!

Video shows Asiana crash victim before she was run over

Dash cam shows that firefighters were alerted to survivor Ye Meng Yuan before she was run over by a rig



The Asiana Airlines crash last July at San Francisco International Airport killed three passengers -- one from being run over by an emergency vehicle after the crash. Newly obtained camera footage reveals that the driver of the vehicle had been alerted to avoid the teenage survivor as she lay on the ground.

Fire rig alerted to Asiana victim before running her over

16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan survived the plane crash, but died after being hit by fire rigs. Dashboard camera footage obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle shows that a firefighter pointed out Yuan's body on the ground -- still alive, according to the coroner -- 15 minutes before she was run over by the truck.

Buckle Up To Get Down

Jon M. Chu directs Virgin America's dance-tastic new flight safety video.



Director Jon M. Chu has done it again. The guy behind the Step Up movies, The LXD and G.I. Joe: Retaliation recently partnered up with Virgin America to produce the airline's new flight safety video. And you know it was going to be cool. It's an all-out shoo-wop-and-shimmy musical extravaganza featuring a lot of his usual crew (note the cute rapping "oxygen girl" Kylie Davis, plus Mike Song and his awesome momma at 1:40):

Hindu guy makes the mistake of traveling on Ramadan

This week in Flying While Brown.



I've lost track of how many frustrating, mind-melting accounts I've read of innocent brown folks getting profiled, hassled and mistreated by airport security while traveling, just trying to get to wherever the hell they're going. Here's one more infuriating account from Aditya Mukerjee: JetBlue Refuses To Let Hindu Man Board Flight During Ramadan, Concerned About His "Disposition."

Mukerjee, who is Hindu, was traveling from New York City to Los Angeles to vacation with his family. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of flying during the Muslim holiday Ramadan -- I repeat, he is Hindu, not Muslim, and not that it friggin' matters -- which he believes ultimately got him detained for hours and questioned by the TSA, NYPD, FBI and Homeland Security. And yes, he missed his flight.

After going through the gauntlet of inane interrogation by all those agencies, it was ultimately the airline, JetBlue, that booted Mukerjee off the flight. He detailed the day's entire shitty experience in an infuriating blog post entitled Don't Fly During Ramadan.

Asiana Airlines suing KTVU for racist fake name report

(UPDATED) In the aftermath of KTVU's on-air racist fake pilot name prank debacle, Asiana Airlines has announced that it is suing the TV station -- but not the National Transportation Safety Board -- over the incident that "damaged the company's image": Asiana to sue San Francisco TV station over names.

It was an epic, mind-blowing fail. The names, which were presumably plagiarized from a fourth grader's joke book were actually displayed and read aloud on air. KTVU said the names were confirmed by the NTSB. The NTSB blamed a summer intern. KTVU issued not one, but two apologies. I'm hoping multiple people got fired.

And now, the airline has confirmed that it will take legal action against the Oakland TV station for allowing the racially offensive names to get on the air. Asiana claims the gaffe "seriously damaged the reputation of the four pilots and the company." The NTSB, however, is apparently off the hook:

Third victim dies in Asiana Airlines crash

More terrible news... A third passenger in the Asiana Airlines crash has died. The victim, described as a girl under age 18, had sustained serious injuries when Flight 214 crashed landed at San Francisco International Airport last Saturday: S.F. plane crash: Third victim dies.

The girl, who had been one of three patients in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, died of her injuries on Friday morning. Her family requested that the hospital not release her identity.

Police also confirmed that 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan, one of the two Chinese teenagers who were killed on the day of the crash, was run over by a firetruck that responded to the emergency. It still isn't clear whether Ye was already dead when she was hit:

File Under Badass: Kim Ji-yeon, Asiana Flight Attendant

Amidst the reporting around the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, one flight attendant has emerged as a hero in the fiery chaos: What made an Asiana flight attendant a hero in SFO crash?

In the moments after the crash, as passengers scrambled to evacuate the wreckage, Asiana flight attendant Ji-yeon Kim reportedly helped to clear the plane, assisting the injured and carrying people as much as twice her size on her back before the whole damn thing went up in flames:

"FRIGHT 214." Seriously, Chicago Sun-Times?

Several folks have drawn my attention to this front page headline of this Chicago Sun-Times headline that ran yesterday in the aftermath of the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco. Seriously -- FRIGHT 214?

One could argue it's merely a pun, but I can't help but note that we happen to be talking about the deadly crash of an Asian-owned airline, in which two of the victims were Chinese, with a Korean pilot in the cockpit. Maybe someone could have used a little more sensitivity instead of trying to get clever with the L/R play on words?

At the very least, it's in extremely poor taste. Huge thumbs down to the Sun-Times.

UPDATE: According to the Asian American Journalists Association's MediaWatch, Sun-Times Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jim Kirk said it didn't dawn on his editors that the play on words could be construed as offensive: Chicago Sun-Times publisher responds to 'Fright 214' headline.

Two dead in Asiana Airlines crash

By now, you've heard about the fiery crash of Asiana Airlines flight 214 on the runway at San Francisco International Airport, which killed two people and injured more than 180 others -- several in critical condition. The flight was arriving from Seoul when the Boeing 777 made a hard landing, lost its tail and caught on fire on Saturday morning: Asiana Airlines Plane Crashes At San Francisco International Airport.

One man caught the crash on camera:

Airline issues boarding pass to wrong elderly Asian woman

Outrageous. Just read about the ridiculous incident on BadAirline involving an elderly Asian woman who recently missed her flight because Delta Airlines issued her boarding pass to the wrong elderly Asian woman: Delta Issues Boarding Pass to Wrong Elderly Asian Woman.

Va Yang arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last month for her flight to Tokyo-Narita, but when she tried to check in, she was informed by the gate agent that someone named Va Yang had already checked in.

They had apparently already issued the boarding pass to someone else... and that was that. They wouldn't check her in and refused to even look into the matter. Seriously? No possibility that you gave the wrong boarding pass to the wrong Asian woman with the same or similar name?

Ms. Yang missed her flight.