What the heck is wrong with people? Yesterday I first wrote about the horrible fight that took place between an airline employee and customer, and I wanted to update the post, as we have some more information about the incident.
Continue reading: Sheesh: United Airlines Employee Fights Passenger
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Two willing individuals willing to throw hands. This should be a citation / fine. Make it as steep as it needs to be. Not whatever they're going to end up doing to these two. I imagine it will have a moderate impact on their future.
A couple of dotard camp followers don’t get their way so they resort to physical violence and brutality. They seem to think the airport is s dotard rally site.
Welcome to Donald Trump’s dystopian America.
So why are you showing this video instead of the other, longer one showing a different perspective where the victim card can’t be pulled, since you acknowledge there is the other video.
If you are going to link the video why not link the longer version with the passenger hitting first?
What victim card? Both videos are posted if you would look. Don’t try to cause an issue on a fairly neutral article for no reason.
The second video is when the passenger hit first. You can see it ends where the first video picks up.
This article is miss leading. The longer version video shows the passenger hit first.
Lucky.. remember when you just posted awesome trip reports..never thought you as media back then. Look at you now. No bueno . this does not belong on a travel blog
No he’s not- remember he is supported by a union and lawyered up. Did you see the blood pouring down his face?? A disgrace
Bruh if anyone punches me, they getting dropped. It’s called self defense. No need to “just walk away” . He played a stupid game and got a surprise. Then he found the courage to get up and approach the passenger again. No matter what was said prior, if the United airlines employee touched him first then nothing else matters. Free flights for life should be coming
I think it’s so important to show people what it’s like traveling now. Even in 2020 and 2021 I was flying often, and I saw so many altercations like these (although usually the airline employees weren’t getting involved like this!). People need to understand how wild it is out there now. People that resort to this need to be permanently banned from flying, and face criminal charges. I’ve seen people spitting on FAs and agents, pushing them, slapping phones out of their hands, throwing drinks at them, et cetera.
Seems like it was going to be over with the slim guy walking away. Then the big guy slaps the slim guy as he was walking away... then he got knocked out. You don't slap someone without being prepared for the consequences. Big guy lost twice... 1. knocked out 2. going to lose his job (unless this is airline policy).
It’s the reality of travel right now… this stuff keeps happening, and it won’t stop until we all raise awareness.
I was at JFK the other day, and a couple was trying to check-in with bags for a flight that was due to depart in 15 minutes. The agent told them they don’t have time to board, especially trying to check bags. The guy called her the C word, and then the female shoved the agent down and spat on her, the accused her of being racist and only allowing white people to board the plane (I’m certain that’s no true). It took 3 police to restrain the women and drag her away from the agent, whose clothes were torn and she was brutalized and crying in front of everyone. This behavior needs to stop.
FYI I saw the video last night on twitter. Part of this video is missing at the beginning and is therefore misleading. The original video begins with the two parties yelling at each other. The agent was behind the counter, but comes out to the area where passenger was and the agent hit the passenger. That full video version has been taken down from all platforms.
So he should be banned cause a grown ass man slapped him in his face when he should of let him be y’all kill me with that one sided shit he shouldn’t hit that man period
We have no idea how this started - so there is not enough blame to go around. If the passenger laid hand on the United employee, then the employee had the right to defend himself - although it looks like he didn’t do well in that area.
@ Lolo -- I strongly disagree, at least based on what we know, and to me what's depicted in this video represents such toxic masculinity.
Of course self defense is a thing, and I think it's totally valid if you're in your home and get robbed, for example. But if you're in public, have a dispute, and you're getting in the face of someone who is obviously willing to fight you, that's not the intent of self defense (in my opinion), that's just being an idiot.
This United agent should have stepped back and should have called the cops. I mean, look at what happened when he was knocked to the floor. It's not like the other guy was following him, but rather the United agent got up and tried to go up to him again. That's just plain stupid, in my opinion.
Self defense shouldn't just be about "well he technically hit me first so now I have a free pass to do whatever I'd like." Self defense should be about defending yourself (minimizing injury), and more often than not that should involve walking away.
“ odds are that just about everyone is going to be seeing this video shortly”
“…so I’m going to cash in my share of the clicks while I can”
Now all the armchair quarterbacks will start talking about how this HUMAN employee was supposed to handle this situation according to United Airlines company guidelines.
That shit gets thrown out the window when someone is wailing on you.
While we still don’t know what happened prior to the video that shows the passenger swinging at the agent before landing the serious blows…if it started right then, that agent has the right to defend himself.
Looks like He tried but was overmatched though.
Still though, stop all this nonsense about “deescalation” blah blah blah. None of you know how you’d really react if in the same shoes.
Adrenaline may say otherwise in the heat of the moment. Clouds even the most clear thinkers mind. Fight or flight is instinctive. Can't rationalize the irrational Ben.
Theyre both going to have consequences for going full caveman either way blame shifts.
Hahaha what does this have to do with Donald trump?! You people are delusional. You need a hobby my friend.
Newark New Jersey. Supposedly passenger used an airport wheelchair to carry his luggage to the counter and was confronted by United employee. United Employee should have kept his hands to himself and called security if the passenger was being unruly. He got his butt kicked and will mostly lose his job. Passenger seemed to try to de escalate and walk away..the airline worker is the big Loser here. As a nurse I’ve been kicked slapped spit on and verbally assaulted many times…it’s difficult but you have to walk away.
Lol @ toxic masculinity. So narrow minded for someone who is otherwise so intelligent. When women do this is it toxic femininity?
The dude who wrote 'welcome to Trumps america', Biden has been the president for almost two years. Grow a pair and learn accountability.
Yeah, because such a huge percentage of black people in Newark are Trump "dotards". Which, by the way, is such a stupid sounding attempt at an insult. Dotard? It's as lame as a liberal elitist dinner party.
It’s been reported it was at EWR, the United “agent” was a contractor, the agent was not arrested but the passenger was.
It’s interesting that it is an expectation of an airline employee to “deescalate” a situation, but not a police officer. I’m over it.
One thing is for certain, in this age of video surveillance and phone video everywhere, you do not throw a first punch at anyone and expect to get mercy from your employer and/or the police. The gray areas are long gone. In any event, regardless of the precipitating event, or who threw the first punch, the agent will be fired. The passenger’s fate is less clear.
The customer deserves 100,000 bonus miles and $5 million. The United Express agent deserves $5 million. The rich should pay for it and give money to the poor.
TS - you are just being a whiny racist.....(Kidding of course). Had it been the other way around (white passengers verbally abusing black cs agent), oh it would have been on CNN, MSNBC, NYTimes, etc....
This is not even a United employee, but a contract subsidiary employee. You can tell by the uniform differences.
But didn't trump supporters(including trump)refer to and thru blame @ his predecessor (Obama) even well into his defeat of a 2nd term??????
We need to start banning more people from public transportation if they cannot behave themselves. The man should be allowed to travel to his destination (if its not his home) then banned from using air, train, ship, or bus transport.
Thus problematic persons can either walk back home, hitch hike, or get a rental car.
According to the not so reliable Daily Mail Australia, he is an Australian living in Canada. Ex NFL (rugby) player who now plays for Canada stampeder??? No idea if it is true.
Fing ridiculous! Should stay in jail till his court appearance and hopefully get sentenced to at least 1 year!!!
What ever happened to security? Or police? Isn't this one of the reasons airlines have security or police on the scene? So that way if someone posing a threat could be detained or properly handled with instead of letting bash it out?
Hey Lucky - very important. That video posted is not the full video. There's one that shows a few punches being thrown by each party prior to the slap. It may be worth a footnote/update.
The "longer" video doesn't show the initial start to the fight (not the situation as a whole).
The United employee moves from behind the employee area, and steps up to the passenger, and then looks to hit him in the face in a combination of a punch/slap/grab. Then the second "longer" video is where things pick up from, and the two are seen fighting.
Athletes being what they are and pretty much all they can be will not get the blame. Some fellow with a real job will lose it affecting his family as well.
Typical American justice 2022.
Both video doesn't show how it started. Can't really tell who throw the first punch.
Bruh, you need a lawyer ASAP. That's not what self defense is.
And I don't think Dr. David Dao got free flights either. Not that his settlement couldn't afford it for the rest of his life.
So I can come up and hit you in the face and if you respond with anything but walking away and giving me whatever I want as a reader then you're unprofessional and horrible? You have every right to defend yourself and not just take a hit and kiss ass to a customer that's abusive. I guess you're the Karen that thinks standing up for themselves is now bad because customer is right. There is no share blame the second a customer hit an employee there is no gloves to deal with the situation so that the customer is happy.
The only winners here are the lawyers! I see two lawsuits from the Passenger to United and the Employee. Three Lawsuits from the United Employee; wrongful dismissal by United; unsafe work environment by United / Airport; pain and suffering due to the concussion and long term disability now can't work again
So now self defense is no longer acceptable to do against bad passengers? Alright so if I hit you over an article I don't expect you to do anything but accept it and back down. No you don't get to do anything since after all the customer is right according to you and thus you should just accept getting hit without any physical recourse
Typical clipped video. Black guy initiated the fight. Threw many blows before the actual video starts.
Watch the video for yourself.
Find the actual full video. That video is clipped too. The United employee actual hits the customer upside the head first and incites everything...
https://twitter.com/tigermelons/status/1528577311943143424?s=20&t=Bz417CgTk0nesm2LgIaVsA
The United employee did....
https://twitter.com/tigermelons/status/1528577311943143424?s=20&t=Bz417CgTk0nesm2LgIaVsA
There's more surfacing... in this "full video", you see the opposite - the employee takes that first swing (within the first 2 seconds) even before the one you referenced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0ruwmr4ClM
So this is a Calgary Stampeder Brendan Langley, according to Calgary news report. Guess he won't be welcome in the USA anytime soon.
Which one, both or??? A lot of buzz with little info, too many different videos, way too many assumptions and opinions and not enough facts.
I am reminded of the time about 10 years ago that I used a UA District Sales Manager paper cert to upgrade from Y to C on a UA flight from FCO via IAD to Sea. Upon gate checkin at IAD, the portly male agent got mouthy and accused me of having stolen the upgrade cert and wanted to downgrade my onward flight to Sea. I have seen a lot of rude, mouthy babble from UA gate agents over the years, especially at SFO. I can see how pax lose control, not that it is right.
Hmm is it me or will there be a nice juicy law suit filed against the employee and United?
If you see the entire video, you’ll see the black male (ex-NFL) started the fight. As usual it was edited by the media to look the opposite.
Frankly, I am not surprised. I have swooned off United years ago because of their ground staff's attitude.
I remember a few years ago there was a fight between a 30 year old man and a much older 70 year old man. Everyone in the comments were attacking the "disgusting" young man. But I saw the full video and it was clear the old man was the problem. But because of how the video was cut i found it likely that the uploader was trying to write a specific narrative. This is the hallmark of how people are made to believe fake news. Guarantee a lot of people who watched that faker cut still believed in the poor old fool. It's our responsibility to scrutinize things and not jump onto the comments. I recognize that I am probably just as guilty at times. But it's time to make an effort to bring logic back to life.
@George L. Lyon Jr
Absolutely he didn’t even have the right stance. I’d have KO’d that childish liar fourth string athlete with 2 left jabs and a right hook. Lights out.
As a retired United ticket, Gate and ramp agent, I’ve been spit at, had bags thrown at me, and almost smacked once but I ducked.
That isn’t coming close to being called and sometimes even taught as a teen and young adult when I began my career every Nasty name in the book.
People have gotten worse and worse and more entitled and entitled as the pandemic continues and it’s time for all airlines to ban together to get a federally known list to ban behaviors like this from flying ever.
There are many many well behaved irate customers who go on to have a fine experience once they’ve calmed down and accepted that most issue pertaining to airline problems are out of the airline agents hands.
We are just the people delivering the info. Some agents are excellent some are eh, and some are terrible and should find a different career. But none of us nor our counterparts in the air deserve the kind of disgusting behavior doled out so freely by the flying population.
I’ve watched my coworkers get smacked and kicked and spit at also. So yah this isn’t ideal that the employee fought back but who knows how many people this week have been nasty tools to him.
I hope he doesn’t get fired and instead gets the help of the EAP to deescalate his broken Psyche.
Yo public CUT IT OUT! If you can’t control your animalistic behaviors don’t fly.
All of the us airports are horribly understaffed by the airport police
Forces. This agent should not
Be fired. The passenger should be banned and it’s shows how unsafe airports are nowadays. Please create a
Go fund
Me account for this gate agent
Call your congressional representative make it a federal crime to assault an airline employee . Passengers are crazy . Who would
Want to work in an airport nowadays ??
That's a very stupid take trying to play the both sides you coward, he hit the guy first while at work, and you claim there's enough blame to go around, and you people wonder why people call your primitive country racist. He was a lot nicer to the guy than I would be, to many a-holes out there who got away with pure violence and aggression until they run in to someone who can fight. He should be glad he ran into that nice man who restrained him self instead of someone who would defend them self.
Look at the first second of that video, he was basically saying c´mon, so he gave him what he wanted I see no problem with that, I dont care what he said if you challenging someone to a fight while at work you deserv it, he probably tough he would get away with it.
He is American former NFL player from Georgia. He can enter the US anytime but if he is convicted then he will not be allowed in Canada to play for the Calgary Stampeders. By the way CFL players are on strike at the moment.
It "sounds like" (yes, this is an assumption, when I'd prefer to know the facts) the agent didn't handle it well to begin with. Of course you don't put luggage on a wheelchair, so fine that it's called out, but it shouldn't go from that to a passenger swinging a punch at you. If it was handled properly. Of course, the passenger can be completely irrational as well e.g on drugs, mental problems, but that shouldn't apply in this case.
If you've been reading Lucky's blog that long, you also know he's a big fan of Jerry Springer-style trash TV. So of course he's going to post this sort of thing whenever it has an aviation angle.
Which is fine with me. It's his blog. There are other types of articles he posts that I don't care for, but you'll never see a comment from me complaining that the article was written. I just don't read them. Maybe try that?
Although this person is in a UNITED UNIFORM, he does NOT work for UNITED AIRLINES directly. He works for a contractor. UNITED AIRLINES employees follow a professional and ethical demeanor and a higher call of duty to safety and respect for passengers and coworkers as well.
That's not simple assault but more like aggravated assault. It was about an airport owned wheelchair. Brendan Langley wanted to use it to carry his luggage through airport security and on to the gate and that's not allowed. If this ex-NFL player had an sense he would not have gotten arrest, he's lucky that the airline agent when he fell did not hit his head and die. Why can't people just learn to accept a NO...Brendan Langley NO YOU CAN'T USED THE WHEELCHAIR TO CARRY YOUR LUGGAGE THAT'S only FOR HANDICAP PEOPLE.
This is the bread & butter content of Gary Leff's VFTW !
Isn't OMAAT a bit above this kind of trash?
Plays football in Canada after being cut by the Broncos. My guess is he is American. So no, he won’t have issues entering the States.
Absolutely, we don't know what lead up to the incident but both of them were wrong to fight.
As per CNN, the United employee has been terminated. The passenger is a football player from the CFL and has been charged with assault.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/24/sport/canadian-football-league-brendan-langley-brawl-newark-airport/index.html
"He’s an ex-NFL star..."
Um, slight correction: NFL stars don't end up in the CFL a couple of years after getting drafted. Just leave the "star" part out and you'll be fine.
Toxic masculinity is a thing.
No, when women do it, it isn't toxic femininity, that's something else.
There are cameras everywhere at airports so the police know 100% how this started.
Sometimes the sad reality is you don’t know what you’re capable of until your buttons are pushed. We can blame all we want but this world has become one lacking God.
Why should the passenger get banned from United. You’re already assuming he caused the problem.
They don't arrive on scene within a few seconds. Lol. I'm sure someone needs to first call them. Then the officer needs to be dispatched. This doesn't all happen in under a minutes time.
Right. United beat up a doctor and forcibly removed him some years ago. And pushed an old man down. United is the epitome of professionalism and quality people. Yes, you are. You'd never do those things you've done.
United contractor threw the first slap, and continued to escalate it when the athlete halted. But an athlete is held to a higher standard in the law since they can cause excessive damage to an opponent and have to know better. Much like a professional boxer getting into a scuff with a non-boxer, and then he knocks the guy out.
Exactly what Mike Tyson said. The longest video out there CLEARLY shows the United Airlines passenger strike the young Black man first! He at that point has every right to defend himself. As the first phase of the fight was slowing down is when the second recorded clips out there start up and shows the UA worker approaching the man again and slapping him yet again! BUT again we see the young black man get arrested even though he was just defending himself. I hope he sues the living daylight out of UA!
If an aggressor comes at you a second time you obviously need to increase the use of force to pacify the aggressor which this young man did. BUT the aggressor STILL gets back up and comes at him yet again! Think about this...what business did the UA employee have that far out near the customer in the first place but to confront the passenger. Conclusion UA employee strikes black man, black man kicks his ass for doing so in defending himself. Black man gets arrested...go figure!
This video shows the UA contractor throwing the first punch. Why did the passenger get arrested for defending himself? https://youtu.be/EFyXyvbIGiA
Live in Australia seen some fights here - but as police are a visible presence in the terminal - it's only been on the aircraft - between passengers . Strangely it seems to be only on certain carriers .
United didn't beat up a doctor or forcibly remove him. O'Hare airport police did that.
I saw in another article that the United employee was actually a “operations specialist” (sounds like someone that does things that helps flights run smoothly). The passenger was using a wheelchair as a means of luggage transportation and the employee had asked him for the wheelchair so he could return it to an area to be used as, ya know, a wheelchair. The other article didn’t say much more than that, so maybe the employee was rude about it or whatever, I don’t know.
You’re also going off of the only video footage you have access to. The cops have access to security camera footage, so that may be the difference.
Exactly people rushing to judgement based on a video that starts midway through a confrontation. Somehow I think in the end they are both going to come out on the wrong side. The employee for continuing to engage in the altercation and this football player for his behavior. Guy should be on the no fly list.
I suggest you simply google search for further videos. Of course, no back story, but the video with the most recorded minutes show the united employee making the 1st physical contact.
Seems there are different versions of the video. Once they establish who threw the first punch, the other person is defending himself, in my opinion. If I were an agent I would try to deescalate the situation, but once assaulted I would defend myself, probably at the cost of my job. Whoever threw the first punch he is in the wrong no matter what. But, wrong or right once an agent defends themselves they will be fired. Airline wants no lawsuits , wrong or right. Passengers are becoming more and more violent and airline staff need federal laws to protect them.
Hopefully, there was a CCTV of the incident and not just other cell phone videos. A CCTV would have captured the whole incident, including the possible argument prior to the first strike being thrown. It would help out the investigation to be thorough and one can have a more valid explanation of the "incident."
"the United Airlines passenger strike the young Black man first!"
Wait, he punched himself?
Brendan Langley plays for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. hahaha, Idiot. He was suspended by the Stampeders. Once convicted, he will be barred entry to Canada and can get a job flipping burgers at McDonalds.
Because the short video did not show the entire altercation, when little boy Branden threw the first punch.
The video with the most recorded minutes doesn't necessarily start the earliest...
Looool!? The full video shows the agent punching the passenger. He was defending himself.. People need to get it right before taking the time to post such a worthless blog/article
Kind regards
The only one with common sense.
Daniela
Bye
Ben please give me a break. I'm sure if someone hits you you will not walk away and call the police. If you hit someone you should expect to get hit back. The ticket agent got what he deserved and the airline should get sued.
Employee ought to be behind the counter providing customer service.
The fact that he is in front of the counter is our first clue here. Also, his immediate firing shows that the company policy was likely grossly violated.
You can’t step into a swarm of bees on purpose and then get sympathy for being bitten
Have passengers sign document agreeing to be totally financially responsible for their poor behavior in this flight.
An attorney will word this properly.
Passenger cannot enter plane without signing the document