Dragged passenger will need reconstructive surgery: lawyer
Dr. David Dao was trying to return home from a California vacation with his wife when he refused to give up his seat to an airline crew member on a full United Express flight.
Now his lawyer hopes the 69-year-old grandfather and Kentucky physician, who suffered a concussion and lost two teeth when he was dragged off the plane at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, becomes “a poster child” for the mistreatment passengers suffer at the hands of the airline industry.
“It took something like this to get a conversation going,” attorney Thomas Demetrio said at a news conference Thursday.
He indicated Dao will be suing United and the city of Chicago, which employs the officers who were seen on cellphone video pulling Dao out of his seat and dragging him off Sunday’s Louisville-bound flight. In the widely shared video, Dao is pulled down the aisle on his back, his face bloody.
Demetrio said the video showed an extraordinary instance of something that happens too routinely: airlines overbooking flights then bumping paying customers.
It also exposed a corporate culture in which airlines — and United in particular — have long “bullied” passengers, he said. The situation could have been avoided if the airline, which offered $800 travel vouchers and a hotel stay for passengers to rebook on another flight, had simply upped their offer, Demetrio said.
“I hope he becomes a poster child for all of us,” he said. “Someone’s got to.”
Dao, who didn’t attend the news conference, was released from a local hospital late Wednesday and will need reconstructive surgery, Demetrio said. He said his client was in a “secure location” because he has been hounded by media, but that he would speak at a future date.
One of Dao’s five children, Crystal Pepper, said the family was “horrified, shocked and sickened” by what happened.
Early on, United CEO Oscar Munoz added to what was already a public relations nightmare for the company when he apologized for the incident but accused Dao of being belligerent. Later, Munoz offered a more emphatic mea culpa, saying: “No one should ever be mistreated this way.”
He promised to review the airline’s policies to make sure something like that never happens again, and said United will no longer use police to remove bumped passengers. The airline also said all passengers on the flight would get a refund.
In a statement issued immediately after Thursday’s news conference, United insisted that Munoz and the airline called Dao numerous times to apologize. Munoz himself said on Wednesday that he had left a message for Dao.
But Demetrio said neither Dao nor his family had heard from United.