What happened to the United Airlines flight attendant? Three people taken to hospital following incident with "disruptive customer"

A United Airlines flight attendant was admitted to Chicago Hospital after an incident on a flight on Sunday, November 13, 2022. The incident happened after a passenger on the flight became infuriated after claiming that they yelled that their toddler needed to throw up. This led to a physical altercation with the flight attendant.

According to the crew on the flight, the incident took place shortly before landing and the flight attendants had repeatedly told the passenger to sit down. The passenger, who was in the aisle, shoved a flight attendant, who was taken to Chicago Hospital after landing as she was injured during the altercation. The passenger and her toddler were also taken to the hospital for observation.

The altercation was recorded by a few passengers and the video is now creating quite some buzz on social media.

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Video shows United Airlines flight attendants asking passenger to be seated as the plane was landing

The incident took place on United Airlines Flight 476 which was going from San Francisco to Chicago. It started when a woman began screaming as she held a toddler. The video, recorded by other passengers, shows the flight attendants telling the passenger to sit down as the plane was descending to land.

While it was unclear why the woman was triggered, the video shows that the woman was infuriated and misbehaving with the crew. It can also be made out that the woman is named "Sarah" as someone can be heard calling her name.

The video also shows several other United Airlines flight attendants standing in the aisle, trying to calm the woman down.

Following the incident, Chicago police reported in a statement that three individuals were taken to the hospital. However, it is unclear as to what the injuries were or how serious they were. The incident is currently being investigated by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI.

United Airlines also released a statement about the incident and their spokesperson said:

"A disruptive customer on a flight from San Francisco to Chicago was removed by law enforcement upon landing on Sunday, and one member of the flight attendant crew was taken to a hospital for evaluation.”

Expressing gratitude for their crew, United Airlines also said:

"We’re grateful to our crew for handling this difficult situation with professionalism and for putting the safety of our team and our customers first.”

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Union leaders infuriated after the United Airlines incident, raise voices for harsher penalties

Following the incident of a passenger shoving a United Airlines flight attendant, union leaders are pressing for stricter and harsher punishments against such passengers.

Corliss King, the Vice President of the Transport Union Workers Local 556, says that disturbances and assaults are at an all-time high. King continues to say that this is a concern for the union as it represents more than 15,000 flight attendants in the nation.

Speaking about the same, King said:

“That small number of people that are insistent on behaving unruly, on behaving dangerously, represent a threat not just to flight crews but to our flying passengers as well.”

King also talked about how flight attendants are the first line of defense, and hence, they should be protected by all means. The union is also pressing the government to implement a list of “abusive passengers” and people who have had a history of assaulting airline workers.