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Julia Hollingsworth

Robert Delaney

An online petition demanding the United States government launch an investigation into the forcible removal of an Asian-American man from a United Airlines flight exceeded the threshold needed for White House review in one day.
A wave of outrage on social media prompted United CEO Oscar Munoz to issue a second statement, apologising for the incident.
Watch: United CEO Oscar Munoz: We are sorry

“No one should ever be mistreated this way,” Munoz said.
He had issued a statement a day earlier that many social media influencers said didn’t go far enough to address the problem.
The 69-year-old doctor was pulled from his window seat by police on Sunday night after the airline overbooked the Chicago to Kentucky flight and decided to remove randomly selected passengers before take-off.
The man resisted and was injured during the altercation, according to witnesses. In videos passengers took of the incident and posted online, the man can be heard begging “just kill me”.

@United overbook #flight3411 and decided to force random passengers off the plane. Here's how they did it: pic.twitter.com/QfefM8X2cW
— Jayse D. Anspach (@JayseDavid) April 10, 2017

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The petition was launched as initial reports suggested that the passenger – identified as David Dao by US media – was a Chinese-American. But the BBC on Tuesday quoted a passenger as saying that the man was Vietnamese and had lived in Kentucky for 20 years.
‘We’ll thrash United Airlines until we get an apology’: millions of Chinese view eviction video as enraged users vow vengeance
“You can apologise today to one guy, but what happens tomorrow?” said Edmund Gor, National President of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance. “We need to go beyond that apology and see what steps the airline is taking to rectify their policies so that this kind of action isn’t taken again and to know what kind of algorithm they’re using [to decide who gets removed from a flight].
“On any flight that’s not Pacific-bound or Asia-bound, you’d be hard-pressed to find Asian flyers making up more than two per cent of the passengers. How did this guy get so lucky?”
Paying customers’ refusal to give up their seat should not be considered disruptive
Jo-Ann Yoo, Asian American Federation
Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation, said her organisation was “horrified” and has more questions than comments for United airlines.
“Our outrage is not that the customer was Asian American, but the fact that this has happened at all,” said Yoo.
“As a corporate practise, what’s the percentage of seats being overbooked? Moreover, what is the process of selecting passengers to reclaim the seats? How many times does this ‘re-assignment’ happen on a yearly basis? What’s the most United has offered to have customers volunteer to give up their seat?”
She added that if United was offering compensation, they should have increased the price until they had actual volunteers and paying customers’ refusal to give up their seat should not be considered disruptive.
“The passenger already boarded and was in a seat that he paid for,” Brian Kelly – also known as The Points Guy – said in a post published today on his website. “United’s Contract of Carriage dictates when a passenger can be refused transport, and nowhere does it state that United can de-board you because it wants to fly its own employees.” Kelly, who publishes travel advice, has 261,000 Twitter followers.

The story, which has gone viral and sparked outrage on Chinese social media platforms, has prompted an online petition on the official White House petition site We the People.
Created on Tuesday, the #ChineseLivesMatters petition reached the required 100,000 signature count, which puts the document in a queue intended for review by the White House, in about a day. These petitions, launched on a section of the whitehouse.gov website, have 30 days to reach their goal in order to get an official response.
“We are calling [sic] the federal government to launch an investigation into this incident. #ChineseLivesMatters,” the petition states.
United’s booting of passenger was even dumber than it looks: staff could have flown cheaper on other flights

Join the protest against UA's violence against Asian passenger on 4/15/17 10am 5932 W Century Blvd Los Angeles CA 90045 #ChineseLivesMatters
— Jackie Liang (@jackielqj) April 11, 2017

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The hashtag mimics the Black Lives Matter movement, which began after a number of black Americans died at the hands of police.
A number of Chinese social media users have condemned Sunday night’s incident as “racial discrimination”.

100,000 signatures goal reached on petition calling for investigation into airline’s removal of passenger

Social media anger sparked by footage of United Airlines forcibly removing a passenger from an overbooked flight showed no signs of abating on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

As 4.45pm EDT (4.45am HKT) the #ChineseLivesMatter petition on We the People reached it's goal of 100,000 signatures. Photo: WethePeople

Watch as United Airlines passenger, picked at random, is dragged off overbooked flight to make room for staff

Passenger, reportedly a Chinese-American doctor scheduled to see patients, is  violently removed from plane to the horror of fellow travellers

The passenger is pictured bleeding and bruised during the violent encounter with airport police. Photo: Twitter

This Sunday, April 9, 2017, image made from a video provided by Audra D. Bridges shows a passenger who was removed from a United Airlines flight in Chicago. Video of police officers dragging the passenger from an overbooked United Airlines flight sparked an uproar Monday on social media, and a spokesman for the airline insisted that employees had no choice but to contact authorities to remove the man. (Audra D. Bridges via AP)

A passenger is dragged off a United Airlines flight from Chicago after the airline overbooked the flight and randomly chose home to leave. Photo: Facebook / Audra Bridges

‘We’ll thrash United Airlines until we get an apology’: millions of Chinese view eviction video as enraged users vow vengeance

United Airlines aircraft on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. Photo: AFP

United’s booting of passenger was even dumber than it looks:  staff could have flown cheaper on other flights

A passenger, his face bloodied and bruised, is dragged from a United Airlines flight in Chicago on Sunday. Photo: Twitter

(FILES) This file photo taken on July 7, 2015 shows United Airlines planes on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California. United Airlines found itself in the middle of a social media storm on April 10, 2017, after the US carrier forcefully removed a passenger from a flight due to overbooking. The incident occurred Sunday on a United Express flight bound for Louisville, Kentucky, from Chicago. United Express flights are operated by one of eight regional airlines which partner with United. / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / JUSTIN SULLIVAN

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