Doctor dragged off flight was convicted of trading drugs for sex (Plot Thickens)

NY Post ^ | April 11, 2017 | Natalie Musumeci

[bella1]

I'm betting that he was not the only poker-playing/former drug-taking/sexually immoral passenger on that plane that day. If that was the criteria for him being randomly selected, then a good percentage of that plane would empty out.

And I would be pitching a loud fit as well if I was being forced off against my will.

[outofsalt]

I guess United didn’t offer him an “upgrade” he really wanted.

[caligatrux]

Well, the plane could not take off under aviation regulations until they were down to the authorized number of passengers. I guess you have ZERO sympathy for the fellow passengers who would have been held up had not a volunteer stepped up finally?

There weren't too many people on the plane. That's not what "overbooked" means. They could have taken off, but they wanted to add 4 crew members to the flight so they had to make 4 paid passengers get off.

[vespa300]

I fly about once a month and have learned.....don’t mess with airlines. Just don’t do it. They have all the power now and will not hesitate to boot you. This guy should have taken the offer or at least acted maturely and with reason.

Airlines are like cops now. They got the power, do what your told. It ain’t worth it. As Remo Gaggi said in Casino.....”Why take a chance. At least that’s the way I feel about it?” LOL

[Alberta's Child]

Uh -- no.

See #29.

[IrishBrigade]

I see United now offers take-out Chinese!

ha ha ha...

[BuffaloJack]

I see the United Airlines damage control hit teams are active and in full offense mode.

The doctor’s past performance has nothing (zero), the bear on this event.
He also, lost his license for over prescribing pain killers. Even this is hoaky, because he got a lawyer and got his license restored easily since he operated a pain management clinic. The DEA has made it a minefield out there for doctors. They would rather a patient suffer in pain.

[\/\/ayne]

So if they had offered sex he would have volunteered to get off the plane?

[Alberta's Child]

A lot of people here have obviously never read the terms and conditions on their airline tickets.

[Moonman62]

And, this has WHAT to do with the story of being dragged off the plane?

...

Three of four people got off the plane peaceably and took their compensation. One guy caused a big problem.

[Alberta's Child]

Three of four people got off the plane peaceably and took their compensation. One guy caused a big problem.

Bears repeating ... many times.

[blueunicorn6]

First off, I think airlines treat people like cattle.

Now that I have that out of the way.....

Didn’t this guy get off the plane and then run back on?

If he runs back on to the plane with airline personnel telling him to stop, then he becomes worrisome to the authorities.

It’s one thing to stand at the ticket counter and scream, but it’s a whole different ballgame when you ignore the airline personnel and rush the airplane.

Everybody is a bit more cautious and focused after 9/11.

He probably just “freaked out”, but airline security is serious business.

[bar sin·is·ter]

This is nothing but a diversion, UAL still sucks balls.

[plain talk]

I knew there was more to this story.

I'm not surprised.

[Cementjungle]

It may not have been overbooked

Airlines always overbook, because on any given flight there are a certain percentage of people who don't show up for whatever reason. But, it's a gamble each time to correctly predict what percentage won't show. If the airline chooses to gamble and make extra profits by overbooking, they should also gracefully accept their losses on the times when they lose the bet.

I've seen countless times when waiting to board and airlines start asking for volunteers. First they offer one ting, then if they don't get takers they just sweeten the pot... perhaps upping the offer to 2 or 3 free tickets in addition to passage on a later flight. A few times they've sweetened the deal so much that I've opted to take them up... but every time I did I was too slow and others beat me to the counter.

United really screwed the pooch on this one... surely they could have upped the offers to a point where they would have gotten 4 takers. The CEO then re-screwed the pooch by publicly defending what they did instead of issuing a profuse apology.

United's shareholders should hold that CEO accountable for causing so much damage to the brand with his idiotic handling of the situation.

[caligatrux]

United should have kept upping the money offer until 4 people volunteered. Surely at 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or $10,000 offer, 4 people would volunteer to give up their seats.

Dropping $40,000 to get 4 people to give up their seats seems like a lot of money... until you look at how far United's stock prices has fallen since this incident. Then $40,000 seems pretty damn cheap.

[Tammy8]

Rarely does anyone dig up dirt on political dims though...strangely enough.

[bar sin·is·ter]

The issue is UAL's policy of randomly removing passengers with paid seats to accomodate thier employees.

[Gamecock]

Sounds like a piece of work. But what does any of that have to do with the abysmally horrible way that United treated a customer?

But it certainly is reasonable for an airline to have cops come on board and beat the crap out of Passengers!

[minnesota_bound]

obamacare: trading prescription drugs for sex favors