Schakowsky drafting legislation to prevent United Airlines debacle from happening again

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky released the following statement on her plans to introduce legislation in response to the violent forcible removal of Dr. David Dao from United Airlines flight 3411 out of Chicago O’Hare airport this Sunday:

“I am glad that United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is finally giving this situation the serious attention it deserves. I will thoroughly review United’s report on April 30, and I hope to see serious policy changes that will prevent this sort of situation from ever happening again. However, I do not want to rely on voluntary compliance from the airlines to prevent this sort of incident.

“When Congress comes back into session, I plan to introduce legislation that would end the practice of involuntarily ‘bumping’ passengers from oversold aircrafts once and for all. If an airline chooses to oversell a flight, or has to accommodate their crew on a fully booked flight, it is their responsibility to keep raising their offer until a customer chooses to give up their seat. My legislation will direct the Department of Transportation to update federal rules to make sure that is the case. It will also ensure that all negotiations with passengers willing to give up their seats are carried out before they board the aircraft. These fixes would prevent the situation we saw on video from ever happening again.”