I've flown commercially on everything from a DC-3 to a 747

[MineralMan]

at one time or another. Although I don't fly so much anymore, I've been on hundreds of commercial flights. I've flown on dozens of different airline companies' planes. Not once, however, have I ever seen anybody taken off a plane after boarding for any reason.

I've seen some unruly, drunken passengers from time to time, listened to screaming infants for hours on end, and have flown on flights that lasted for 14 hours with just one stop. But, I've never witnessed a passenger being forcibly removed and taken off the plane.

I'll be flying again near the end of this month, going to visit my 92-year-old parents for a few days. I don't expect that I'll see anyone removed from that plane, either.

Now, I've been bumped many times. Sometimes, I've volunteered to be bumped. In fact, I flew free for a couple of years by figuring out what flights would be sure to be full and flying on vouchers. That trick no longer works, but it was fun for a couple of years.

So, has anyone every experienced seeing someone forcibly removed from a flight they were on? I'd be interested to hear about that experience.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Nope

And I'm very well traveled.

I still have about 20 sets of 'wings' they used to give little kids! Never. Not on an international, domestic, express flight - have I see someone forcibly taken off of a flight.

[MineralMan]

2. I think it must be an exceedingly rare event.

[titaniumsalute]

3. Yes usually you will get requests for volunteers to take vouchers

at the gate prior to boarding. I've never seen people deplaned EXCEPT occassionally a standby passanger.

[MineralMan]

5. When I was in the USAF, back in the late 60s, I flew

military standby many times. Half-priced tickets. I don't remember not getting on many flights. Often, I'd end up in the first class cabin, actually, where there were usually vacant seats back then. You had to travel in uniform, of course, but that often led to interesting conversations on the plane, so it was no big deal.

I spent many of my skimpy paychecks on standby tickets, just to fly off somewhere and back. I also flew quite a bit on military planes on a standby basis. When I was stationed in Turkey, my rotating shifts meant that I had four days off in a row once a month. So, I'd hop on the little plane that delivered the mail and head for a base in Greece, where I'd hop on the first plane going somewhere else. I saw many places in Europe doing that. I even hitched a ride on an F-4 Phantom to Germany once. The trick was that you had to get back on time. That wasn't always easy, but the mail plane flew to our tiny base on the Black Sea every day from Greece. So, you could count on a seat on it.

[LisaM]

4. Nope, and I fly fairly often, 5-10 times a year.

I've never even seen anyone being particularly disruptive. The worst I saw was a few months ago, a guy was coming over to the check-in to re-book because he said they wouldn't let him on the flight for being too drunk, which he denied, but even he wasn't acting too put out about it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. I have seen three people kicked off flights, all three were wasted

None of them were belligerent, but all of them were slurring drunk. One woman had stumbled on the plane, took a random seat and was barely responsive when they asked her to take her proper seat, she was taken off the plane by paramedics. The flight crew was in awe that she had actually made it to the gate and boarded before blacking out. She was tiny, probably not even a 100lbs.

However I did once see a flight attendant have a full temper tantrum at a passenger who was presumably a pilot because he was sitting in the cabin and not the jump seat and they had left standbys behind. That was really, really uncomfortable. I wasn't able to hear his side of the conversation just the male flight attendant berating him for being selfish and unprofessional.

[GetRidOfThem]

7. Nope...

I am a transport economist who works world-wide, so I travel a lot by air. Not only that, I worked my way into the business with air transport being my first sector within transport, i.e. I worked globally as an air transport specialist. I have never, ever seen anyone being bumped out of their seat.

[stonecutter357]

8. nope not one time.

[MGKrebs]

9. I would expect it to be a rare event too.

But what's your point?

[MineralMan]

10. Must I have a point?

I thought it would be interesting to know if anyone had seen such a thing.

[MGKrebs]

14. No of course not.

I guess I would have expected a thread to share anecdotes to be in the Lounge. In here it looked like an attempt to draw a conclusion from random comments, which I was going to caution against.
My mistake, no offense intended.

[MineralMan]

17. Many things about many subjects are posted in GD.

Just now, airline policy is a topic du jour, so...

[randome]

11. From the graph in this link, it appears there were 300 "unruly" passenger reports in 2004.

A hundred in 2015?
http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/airlines-kicked-off-passengers-rights/

But this is just the number reported by the crew and it's out of 895 million total passengers.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[MineralMan]

18. Looks like odds are long for experiencing such a thing.

[randome]

19. Yeah, I would have guessed the numbers were higher.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

[duncang]

12. Started off in the same planes as you

And never saw such a cluster f..k as what happened with United. Almost all of my flights have been as non-rev. On Mid-western, Braniff, Continental, and yes even United.

As someone who has non-rev experience sometimes you have to think on you feet. We had a flight to a hub, a 4 hour lay over, and on to our final destination. At the hub we checked and found out our next leg was overbooked and the next available would be at least sometime late the next day. We checked on near by airports and found a flight we could get on non-rev. Took a 2 hour rental drive and made it to our final almost the same time the original flight arrived. I don't know how well United checked out options for getting their employees to Louisville but I think they had options other then pulling paying customers off.

[MineralMan]

13. I don't know how many flights there are between those two cities, really.

The real problem is that they decided to bump already-boarded passengers at the last minute to accommodate those four non-rev passengers. From what I understand, they arrived at the gate after passengers had boarded. I realize that airlines have to shift crews to make their schedules, but that sounds like too close a call, to me. I also read that there was a later flight to Louisville that day. That seems like a viable alternative for what happened.

[duncang]

16. Guess the point i was trying for

Was some big dummy like my self who really doesn't have the full access behind the counter could figure out a way to get there. United should have been able to figure out a way for their employees to get to Louisville. With out pulling any paying customer.

[MineralMan]

15. The DC-3 was a fluke. I got my ride in it in the late 1970s. It was a scheduled

employee shuttle plane from Vegas to the Nevada Test Site and I was a journalist assigned to do a story there. It was operated by a charter company, and flew that route a couple of times a day.

I was thrilled to have a chance to fly in that old classic airliner. It was a short, bumpy flight over the desert, but listening to those old radial engines was a treat. My father was a B-17 pilot in WWII, and told me that they flew a lot like a DC-3. Fun flight.

[brooklynite]

21. Lockheed Electra?

An Asian airline bought some in the mid-70s which I got to fly.

[MineralMan]

23. Nope. Never been in one.

There was one at the Camarillo, CA airport (a former AFB) years ago, but I never had a chance to fly on it. I'm not sure what it was doing there, but I never saw it do anything but be parked.

[duncang]

24. Youngster lol

The first dc-3 I rode in was in the 50's. For me it was thrilling to ride a jet. Or not having to scale the aisle to get to your seat.

[MineralMan]

27. My first actual airline flight was in a Continental 707 in 1965.

LAX to San Antonio on my way to Basic Training in the USAF. I remember that they handed out mini-packs of cigarettes and served a hot meal on the flight. Gone are the days...

Oddly enough, my flight to California at the end of the month will end at the same LAX Terminal 2 where that first flight originated. Could be at the same gate, I suppose.

[duncang]

31. My grand father and father both worked for airlines

And still have 3 living relatives plus a couple friends who work for airlines. Just remembered I have seen a instance of someone getting on the plane already drunk. And being loud they weren't thrown off. The stewards just talked to him when he was seated and kept a eye on him.

What is also strange to me is seeing the change not only in the planes but the airports over the years. I remember going down the baggage chutes as a kid. Getting to drive a baggage car. For some reason I don't think I could get away with that now.

[brooklynite]

20. Not getting on; only getting off

Back in January, ICE met my plane at the gate and hauled two people off before the rest of us could disembark.

[MineralMan]

22. That's pretty close.

Interesting. Was the exit peaceful on the part of the two people who were taken off the plane?

[brooklynite]

25. Far as I know it was...

...they made PA requests for two people to (identify themselves to the gate agent); I couldn't see anyone show up but didn't hear anything suggesting conflict.

[treestar]

26. No.

Was bumped once without volunteering. They gave me a hotel room near the airport. I was annoyed but able to work out what I had scheduled for the next day.

[exboyfil]

30. Did you take the cash?

or did you get a voucher. Did they let you know that you can receive cash?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. The only time I ever saw anyone get asked to leave an airplane

after boarding was some years ago at ORD, when a woman in the last row started vomiting violently into one of those airsick bags. This was before the door was closed and while other passengers were still boarding. The flight attendants became very concerned (this was during the SARS epidemic) and told the captain about it; he asked them whether they were comfortable leaving her on the flight, and they said no. So they went back and asked her to leave, and she complied although she looked unhappy (and very ill and pale). As we pushed back from the gate we saw an ambulance pull up, so the gate agent must have called 911.

As an airline employee (not United) I flew a lot and I never saw anything remotely like the United incident the other day.

[exboyfil]

29. I have seen folks kicked off - TWA in the 1980s

A business trip flying out of St. Louis (probably to Denver or Orange County - I can't remember which).

Everyone was seated and ready to go. Then the intercom came on demanding that the non-revenue passengers (ie voucher and frequent flyer) identify themselves and to leave the plane. Some didn't and they made the request again. Sat there quite a while waiting for them to leave and the "revenue" passengers come on board.

They were not dragged off, but I am convinced that they would have been if they had not gone "willingly".

After all of these years, I still remember it.

[peacebuzzard]

32. Two separate incidents years apart, both with very intoxicated females

Both were removed with the assistance of the gate agents.

They both complied without incident.