It was only two months ago that the video of Dr. David Dao being dragged off a United Airlines flight went viral. And the company experienced a PR nightmare because the public was not pleased with what they saw.
And now, Channel 2 Houston Investigates has obtained a video of a physical confrontation between United Airlines employee Alejandro Anastasia and a 71-year-old man at Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The alleged incident occurred in 2015.
Ronald Tigner is seen being shoved to the ground by Anastasia. He collapses, hits his head on the floor, and stays on the ground motionless. Witnesses hover over and stare at Tigner’s motionless body, at one point walking a good distance away from him, but do not bother to check to see if he is OK. Customers continue to go about their business. Surrounding United employees do not step in to help.
The incident occurred directly in front of the United Airlines ticket counter.
“No one even went to check his pulse,” attorney William Hoke said to KPRC2. “They literally left him there like a piece of garbage.”
Approximately 40 seconds following the incident, a customer is seen running up to assist Tigner. United employees stand by and watch.
According to attorney Hoke, the woman said “Please, God. Someone call 911.” And only then does a United employee call the police, but does not specify in the conversation that Tigner had been shoved or that he was unconscious.
The employee told police that Tigner had fallen and that he was unsure of what caused his collapse, according to a 911 call. Additionally, that he did not know if Tigner was awake.
The incident reportedly occurred because Tigner asked Anastasia for a new boarding pass, explaining that his current one was distorted. It is claimed that Anastasia responded by laughing and cursing at him.
Attorney Hoke claims that Anastasia said, “Can’t you see we’re busy?” Tigner proceeded to tell the employee to “wipe that smile off his face”, and it is then that Anastasia stated “I’ll kick your (expletives)” and shoves him to the ground.
Following this incident, the United employee was charged with a felony but only had to pay a fine, write a letter of apology and attend anger-management classes. Tigner is pursuing a lawsuit against United Airlines for more than $1 million.
As for United Airlines, the company has released the following statement in regards to the newly discovered footage:
“We have seen the video from 2015 that shows completely unacceptable behavior by a United employee. This employee is no longer with our company. The conduct shown here does not reflect our values or our commitment to treat all of our customers with respect and dignity. We are taking a thorough look into what happened here and reaching out to our customer to profusely apologize for what occurred and to make this right.”