Report of the incident of United Airlines flight

Assessment 3
Individual Report

Done by:-
Pramila Thing
Submission Date:
- 15th may, 2020
Friday
 Table of contents

1) Introduction
2) The incident and 2.1) how 2.2) 2.3)
it’s brief the Reasons Approaches
Information conflict for the used to
started conflict resolve the
conflict and
its
consequence
s
3) Conclusion

4) Reference List
 1) INTRODUCTION
United Express Flight 3411 incident

Conflict is a dynamic process in which two or more individuals in an

organization interact in such a way as to produce “conflict episodes”
that may or may not lead to hostile behaviours. Conflict exists where
goals, interests or values of people are incompatible and they
prevent other’s efforts to achieve their goals. On April 10th, 2017 a
passenger was injured and forcibly removed from a United Airlines
flight by law enforcement and Chicago Aviation Security officers on
Sunday refusing to give up his seat. There was a viral video of the
incident captured by passengers on board the flight. In this report I
will be critically examining the incident that escalated on board the
United Airlines Flight 3411, I have taken some references from the
article by Daniel Victor and Matt Stevens as well as the YouTube
video of the incident posted by the channel “Business Insider”.

2) The Incident and it’s brief Information

2.1) how the conflict started

According to some articles and videos from the internet
uploaded by the passengers on board the flight was scheduled
to depart O’Hare International Airport in Chicago for Louisville
at 5:40 p.m. but was delayed for two hours. The incident
started when the Airlines staff told the passengers that some of
them would have to be removed from the seat for four of their
 employees who needed to get to Louisville urgently and the
passengers who got off would get 800$ compensation for their
troubles. Later four out of three people agreed to get off the
Airplane while the fourth passenger David Dao Anh (A
Vietnamese American Pulmonologist) who was selected
refused to get off his seat saying that he needed to treat his
patients, later it escalated into a conflict between the guards
resulting in injury to Dao. Later, the Chicago Department of
Aviation said in a statement that the incident “was not in
relevance with our standard operating procedure”. David was
just a paying passenger who was trying to get to his patient.
The conflict was clearly miss-handled by the person in charge.

2.2) Reasons for the conflict

Conflicts are a common in our world, they arise because there
are needs, values or ideas that different among individually as well as
in terms of organizations, and there is no means to reconcile the
dispute. Very often conflict leads the way towards negative
emotions, Violence as well as blocked communication between
concerned parties but conflicts are not always bad because they
teach us valuable lessons in order to not repeat the same mistakes.
In the Incident of Flight 3411, the Airlines were clearly at fault for
over booking their tickets and using forceful tactics to convey a point
to their passengers, this is clearly a bad way of managing a conflict.
In any Business, the customers are the ones whom the providers
should prioritize. The way they handled the conflict was not
professional and certainly not appropriate for their Public Image.
 2.3) Approaches used to resolve the conflict and its
consequences
After the conflict escalated the airline tried to negotiate the matter
by offering compensation to the man who was forced by the security
guards and the police officers; in the process, they struck his face
against an armrest, then pulled him unconscious, by his arms along
the aircraft aisle past rows of on looking passengers. They were
placed on leave immediately after the incident until further notice.
The federal transportation department was also investigating
whether the airline complied with rules regarding overbooking. The
next morning United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a statement which
appeared to justify the removal of Dao, referring to it as “re-
accommodating the customers.” Munoz and United were heavily
criticized for their initial statements and United Airline suffered a
drop in stock price on Wall Street. Two days after the incident,
Munoz issued another statement. Apologizing and promising that
this type of incident would never happen again on their airlines.
Later, Munoz was denied a promotion to chairman as a result of the
incident and Dao reached an “amicable” settlement with the airlines
on April 27, the terms of which was not announced publicly. This
incident made the Airlines change their Security staffs and review
their internal staff communication protocols.

3) Conclusion
3.1) the CEO’s method of handling the situation is completely
chaotic. His disco-ordination with his staff and the fact that he is
unaware of the need for clear communication between his internal
staff resulted in the conflict.
3.2) the conflict is clearly not well managed in the initial stage,
there is miss-communication especially between the Security staffs.
According to the investigations by the police, out of the three officers
involved one made misleading statements in the reports, one
removed essential information about the incident and the last one
used excessive force which caused a broken nose, concussion and
the loss of two teeth of the victim. Two of them received suspension
and the violent one got discharged from his duties.
3.3) the conflict of United Airline flight 3411 displayed the lack
of conflict management inside a big aviation industry but it also gives
its way to improve the flaws.
3.4) there is a confusion that the three officers is police but
they are not. They are the security personnel, however it is not their
fault since their uniforms, badges and vehicles are falsely labelled
police due to historical reasons.

4) Reference List

 Article by Daniel Victor and Matt Stevens.

 Video reference from the YouTube channel “Business
Insider”.
 Consequences of the incident from “Wikipedia”.
 Reference from “writing guide Lines for students” by Lisa
Emerson.
 Some insights from “Chapter 14 -Conflict management”.