United Airlines (UAL) CEO Oscar Munoz said he was ashamed of a now infamous video that shows a bloodied passenger being dragged from one of his airline’s planes, and declared that such an incident would “never happen again.”
His comments came during an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America, Wednesday. “We are not going to put a law enforcement official onto a plane to take them off … to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger. We can’t do that,” he said on the show.
In an email to colleagues on Monday, Munoz had described the forcibly removed passenger, Dr. David Dao, as “disruptive and belligerent.” The United chief has since adopted a more conciliatory tone — in a statement of apology he acknowledged the airline’s “full responsibility” for the incident, and on Wednesday United announced it would reimburse the ticket costs of all the passengers onboard Flight 3411.
While speaking to ABC, Munoz said that his first reaction was to “get the facts and circumstances,” adding that: “My initial words fell short of truly expressing the shame.”