Senators Decry State of Air Travel After Passenger Incidents

Air travel in the United States has become a combustible mix in which passengers aren’t the only ones treated unfairly, senators were told on Thursday. Travelers all too frequently take out their frustrations on airline employees, including flight attendants and gate agents, speakers said a Senate hearing.

Senators from both parties said that airlines must improve the way they treat their passenger, but they also said airline employees must be treated with respect.

The Senate hearing comes after a passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight last month and a separate incident on American Airlines in which a mother with a stroller was bullied by a flight attendant. Videos of both incidents were widely circulated on social media.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said air travelers frequently tell him they “feel like they’re being treated as self-loading cargo rather than as valued consumers.”

Passenger are so fed up that they are becoming amateur detectives, Nelson said, using their cellphones to record incidents such as the removal of United passenger David Dao and the heated confrontation on the American flight.

Widely shared video of a bloodied Dao being dragged from the United flight, which he had refused to leave, sparked worldwide outrage and led to calls for a congressional crackdown on U.S. airlines.

“I take no pleasure in beating up the airlines, but in this case, it’s warranted,” said Nelson, the top Democrat on the Transportation Committee. “The fact is we wouldn’t be sitting here today if the traveling public believed the airlines cared more about them than their own bottom lines.”

Nelson and other lawmakers complained about an “explosion of fees” for services such as checked baggage, priority boarding and assigned seating, even as flights are frequently delayed and passengers with disabilities or other special needs are not treated with proper care.

“Adding insult to injury,” American Airlines announced this week that it is slashing legroom in its new Boeing 737 jets to squeeze 10 more passengers on its planes, Nelson said.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chairman of an aviation subcommittee, said he was horrified by the video of Dao’s April 9 removal from the United flight.

“The last thing a paying airline customer should expect is a physical altercation with law enforcement personnel after boarding,” Blunt said. “How did that decision escalate to a point where a passenger was physically pulled out of his seat, dragged down the aisle and left bloodied on national tv?”

Even so, Blunt said there are “hard questions” regarding the way frustrated passengers treat airline employees, including flight attendants and gate agents.

Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said United employees have come under siege since the Dao incident.

Complaints and threats have been “pervasive at the airports, on the planes, on several media and broadcast stations and even in our schools, churches and neighborhoods,” she said, calling the reaction to incident “demoralizing” and anxiety inducing.

“Flight attendants had no role in this event and never would. We are aviation’s first responders and last line of defense. We save lives,” she said.

Dao was waiting to fly from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, on April 9 when the airline decided it needed four seats for Republic Airline crew members who needed to travel to work on another United Express flight in Louisville the next morning. When Dao and his wife were selected for bumping, he refused to leave.

Airport security officers yanked Dao from his seat and dragged him off the plane, causing a concussion, broken nose and other injuries.

United CEO Oscar Munoz called the incident “a mistake of epic proportions” at a House hearing this week and vowed to improve customer service.

United has taken a series of steps to reduce overbooking of flights since the incident and will raise to $10,000 the limit on payments to customers who give up seats on oversold flights, Munoz said. The airline also said it will improve employee training.

Ginger Evans, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Aviation, called Dao’s treatment “completely unacceptable” and “personally offensive.”

Three officers involved in the incident and a supervisor have been placed on leave amid an investigation by the city of Chicago, Evans said Thursday.