A man has been filmed being pulled screaming from his plane seat because the airline overbooked the flight and needed to get people off.
The footage shows the man being yanked from his United Airlines seat by three men before being dragged down the aisle as other passengers scream in protest.
A second video shows the same man later running back down the aisle repeating “I have to go home” over and over.
The flight was from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday evening.
Passenger Audra Bridges, who filmed what happened from her seat, said the airline wanted to remove passengers so a standby crew, who had to be in Louisville the next day, could be seated.
They initially asked for volunteers but when no one came forward, a computer randomly selected four people. A couple was chosen and agreed to go but when the man in the video was called, he refused to move.
He said he was a doctor who was due to see patients in Louisville the next morning.
In Bridges’ clip, the three men who pull the passenger from the seat are carrying radio equipment and security jacket.
As the man is pulled from his seat, he hits the arm rest of the seat across the aisle and appears to have been knocked out as he is dragged away.
As he is dragged down the aisle with a bloodied lip, one woman shouts: “This is wrong. Oh my God, look at what you did to him.” The same woman had earlier asked why the standby crew could not be driven to Louiseville.
“Everyone was shocked and appalled,” Bridges told The Louisville Courier-Journal. “There were several children on the flight as well that were very upset.”
She said a medical crew was brought on to tend to the man. The flight was delayed by around two hours.
In a statement, United Airlines said: “Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation.”
Chief executive Oscar Munoz later issued a statement about the “upsetting event” and apologised.
“Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened,” he wrote.
“We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve this situation.”