United Airlines may have settled with the passenger dragged off from his seat for an undisclosed amount to prevent an ugly and potentially huge lawsuit, but along with the still unresolved dead giant bunny issue, looks like there's another case to hound the embattled airlines anew.
A woman has come forward on social media to share her harrowing experience of being forced to urinate in a cup on what she described as her 'worst flight' ever on an airline with a long-standing partnership with United Airlines.
Nicole Harper from Missouri posted a lengthy narrative on social media platform Facebook where she claimed that she was forced by flight attendants to urinate in a cup during a Mesa Airlines flight from Houston to Kansas City, Mo., after they refused to allow her to use the restroom. Mesa is a regional U.S. carrier with a long-standing partnership with United Airlines which started in 1992 and continue to represent the brand United Express, according to its own website.
Harper said on her Facebook post that "the worst flight" she has ever been on coincidentally happened on the same day that a 69-year-old passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight, beaten and bloodied for refusing to "volunteer" to give up his seat for a crew member.
Harper said the incident happened midway through the flight while the flight attendants were handing out drinks. Harper, an emergency nurse, also said that the pilot had turned on the seat-belt sign but she could see United crew members allowing other passengers to use the restroom. She said that when it was her turn to use the restroom to pee, she was prevented from doing so by the attendants. The nurse said she tried to explain that she had an overactive bladder and due to her emergency need, she either had to use the restroom immediately or use a cup. A flight attendant, she claimed, made the 'decision' for her by handing her two cups.
Harper, in a media interview with CBS affiliate KCTV, said she was wearing a dress at that time, and with the assistance of her husband, she was forced to squat over her seat and pee on the two cups provided to her. She said that she found the experience "so degrading" because there were other passengers, strangers and yet she had to do what she was forced to do.
And that's not where her humiliation ends. Harper said crew members escorted her to the restroom to empty the cups and told her afterwards that they would be filing a report and calling in a hazmat team to clean the row where she had been sitting. Harper said she was treated like she " had committed a crime". She said that she thought that her already hugely humiliating experience of being forced to pee in a cup on an airplane in front of her family and strangers would be the worst part of her story. She said that was even eclipsed by the nasty treatment she received from flight attendant after the incident. She said that they were " absolutely horrible" to her and her family for the rest of the flight.
A United spokeswoman had a contradicting version of the incident. She said that initial reports from the Mesa Airlines flight attendants indicate that Harper attempted to go to the restroom just as the flight was on descent. The spokeswoman added that Harper was instructed to remain on her seat with the seatbelt fastened as per FAA regulations. She also denied that flight attendants ever suggested to Harper to use the cups to pee on instead of using the lavatory. She also said that customer safety is the first priority of United Airlines. The airlines is said to be currently investigating the incident and trying to reach out to Harper.
Harper said that she decided to come forward through social media with her experience with United after its customer service agents refused to return her calls. In a follow-up Facebook post after the local media has picked up her story, Harper shared that an executive customer-service representative at United finally called her. But it looks like the two parties did not reach an amicable agreement or settled the conflict. Harper said that she will no longer be flying with United, will be canceling her credit card, and would be hoping her post would go viral. She reiterated that it was the worst flight she ever had, and pointed that there are other airlines for everyone to choose from- which, unlike United she said, "treat people with human freaking decency."
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