Originally Posted by STS-134

- Other passengers were sticking up for the passenger who was being mistreated.

Originally Posted by Miles Ahead

The problem isn't that United didn't live up to its values. The problem is that it did. Values like:

1. A dollar today is more important than many dollars in the future.
2. The job of the GA is to follow the rules, not apply common sense.
3. Rules can be bent for employees, but must be rigidly adhered to for customers.
4. Passengers are, if not exactly the enemy, an unavoidable nuisance.
5. It's OK to misidentify a complaining passenger as a threat to the plane's safety.

United decided that it was cheaper to IDB passengers than to let VDB compensation get too high, and if the passenger complained, send security over to remove him. Then the crew on the spot felt, for whatever reason or past instruction, that the same procedure should be used inside a tiny metal tube. With entirely foreseeable results.