美联航争议事件升级 CEO言论招致多方谴责

The United Continental row deepened yesterday as the airline’s chief executive sparked further anger by defending the actions of staff after a screaming and injured male passenger was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight.

联合大陆(United Continental)争议事件昨日升级，在一名受伤的男性乘客尖叫着被强行拖离超量预订的航班后，这家航空公司的首席执行官因维护员工的行动而进一步激发众怒。

United came under fire from US politicians, with one senior lawmaker calling for a hearing, while damage to the carrier’s reputation spread to China. The incident was the most popular topic on Weibo, the country’s Twitter, with more than 100m views.

美联航遭到美国政界人士抨击，一位资深立法者呼吁举行听证会，而这家航空公司声誉上的损害也蔓延到中国。该事件成为微博（中国的Twitter）最热门的话题，阅读量高达4.7亿。

Chinese social media users called for a boycott of the airline, accusing it of discriminating against the passenger based on his ethnicity, which United denies.

中国社交媒体用户呼吁抵制美联航，指责该公司基于这名乘客的种族对他区别对待，美联航予以否认。

The incident is the second public relations disaster to hit the group inside a month. In March, two teenage girls were told they could not board a United flight because they were wearing leggings.

该事件是美联航在一个月内遭遇的第二起公关危机。3月份，两名十几岁的少女被告知由于穿着紧身裤而不能登上美联航班机。

In a letter to United employees about the forcible removal of the passenger from a flight on Sunday, chief executive Oscar Munoz said airline staff “followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this”.

美联航首席执行官奥斯卡?穆诺兹(Oscar Munoz)就上周日这起乘客被强行拖离航班事件致信员工，他在信中表示空勤人员“遵照了处理此类情况的既定程序”。

He said: “While I deeply regret this situation arose, I also emphatically stand behind all of you, and I want to commend you for continuing to go above and beyond to ensure we fly right.”

他说：“虽然我对这种情况的出现深感遗憾，但我绝对支持你们所有人，我还要赞扬你们坚持卓越，以确保我们正确执行航班。”

His choice of words — which described the passenger as “disruptive and belligerent” — were widely lambasted.

他称这名乘客“行为具有破坏性，而且好斗”，这些用词遭到广泛谴责。

Dick Costolo, former chief executive of Twitter, said: “This is one of the most tone-deaf corporate emails ever sent, and I should know, because I sent some that are surely in the top 10.”

Twitter前首席执行官迪克?科斯托洛(Dick Costolo)表示：“这是迄今最不识时务的企业电子邮件之一，我应该知道这一点，因为我发的一些邮件肯定可以被列入前十名。”

John Bailey, a specialist in aviation crisis communications, said the “non-apology came across as legalistic, very cautious and not at all heartfelt”.

航空危机沟通专家约翰?贝利(John Bailey)表示这一“算不上道歉的表态让人觉得死抠法律条文，非常谨慎，且一点儿也不诚恳。”

Yesterday, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a senior member of the Transportation Committee and its subcommittee on aviation, said there should be a hearing on the “abusive removal” of the United passenger.

昨天美国众议院交通委员会及其航空小组委员会资深成员、国会女议员埃莉诺?霍姆斯?诺顿(Eleanor Holmes Norton)表示，应该就这名美联航乘客受到的“侮辱性离机”举行听证会。

Shares in United dropped 3.5 per cent to $68.97 by midday New York time.

纽约时间中午时分，美联航股票下跌3.5%，至68.97美元。