Forgetting all the legalistics, this whole episode, the way it is unfolding, is the result of two intelligence failures:
- The first was an artificial intelligence failure of a computer selecting the human victims.
Let's go back to the root cause of this: it was someone in Ops/Rostering etc who decided this crew had to position ASAP and started the chain of events. Was the positioning crew on an emergency callout to salvage an a/c off schedule? Were they planned for this trip but someone forgot to book them confirmed tickets, and then it was an "Ooops' moment? Whatever, someone low down the food chain kicked this off. Someone gave an order to get the crew on board at all costs. That someone has smelly underpants. It could be that Ops sent the crew, and the station manager actioned the evict order under pressure from Ops. There were cheese slices here and the first hole was, perhaps, forgetting to book the crew from seats, then the decision to get the crew on board at all costs. There were opportunities to close the holes in the following slices, but people kept lining them up until Ka'boom. If it was so important to get the crew on board they should have boarded first and then the flight would be over booked. Pax could be 'volunteered' at the gate. For the crew to arrive last suggests a last minute call out; or was this another cock up? So many opportunities to have avoided this, but it seems there was no common sense leadership from anyone. No doubt there will be a lot of 'buck passing' in the internal enquiry. One wonders how high up the hierarchy will they choose the judge and hang-man. There will be more than one person falling on their sword, or praying the hangman is sick, including the out of work bouncers who over stepped their authority. The pax can sue UAL for $$ and then also the bouncers for general unprovoked assault. Imagine the scenario where a nightclub bouncer is told to evict a customer for being drunk and then wildly man-handles the wrong guy. The bouncer is also liable.
Guess this guy was unlucky to have an isle seat. The computer section must have also included this little nicety. Could this be the next program on 'Air Smash Investigation', or will it be 'Bloopers'? I suspect the boarding crew must have felt like pigs at a Jewish wedding. I haven't read anything about the actions, or not, of the operating captain. Maybe I missed them in the pages: or did he hunker down?