The video of a United passenger getting dragged off a Louisville-bound plane in Chicago on Sunday has dominated news and social media for the past two days, with outrage spanning the United States, Europe, and even China, where it was the top trending topic on the social-media platform Weibo. Beyond the sheer shock of the video, the event has sparked a debate over who or what is responsible for the fiasco, with blame falling on several physical and abstract culprits, including:
-
The security officer (now on leave) who could be seen lifting the passenger, an elderly Asian doctor, out of his seat and smashing his head into the armrest across the aisle, before dragging his body through coach
-
The passenger, who refused to comply with security officers, which can tempt violence even if one has done nothing wrong
-
United employees, for letting the situation escalate, even though they seem to have followed company protocol to the letter
-
United operations, which booked and boarded passengers in seats the company needed to transport employees to Louisville to fly the following day
-
United booking policy, which leaves the company room to book flights at or over capacity to decrease the odds of taking off with an empty seat, allowing them to profitably reduce ticket prices
-
U.S. regulatory policy, which, by allowing airlines to consolidate, has hurt consumer choice, reduced the carriers’ incentives to provide quality service, and protected their right to deny boarding to paying customers, even if they reject compensation
I’ve read several different theories for how to apportion the blame between these entities. Personally, I sympathize with the passenger for making a fit; have pity for the United employees at the gate; think the security officers behaved like brutes; and consider bad service a symptom of oligopolies and lax regulatory policy.