US won’t punish United over passenger-dragging incident

NEW YORK CITY (AFP) — Federal officials decided not to punish United Airlines over an infamous incident in which a passenger was dragged off an overcrowded plane.

The Transportation Department said it found no evidence that United violated David Dao’s civil rights in the April 9 incident in Chicago.

There was also not enough evidence that the airline violated rules regarding bump- ing passengers to take the case further, the department said.

A Transportation Department lawyer told United about the decision in a May 12 letter but didn’t make the matter public. An advocacy group, Flyers Rights, released the letter on Wednesday after obtaining it through an open-records request.

Paul Hudson, the president of Flyers Rights, criticized the lack of penalties against United and questioned how the Transportation Department could conduct an investigation so quickly. He called the manhandling of 69-year-old Dao “egregious in every sense of the word.”

Airline agents called O’Hare Airport security officers for help in making room on a United Express plane for four employees who were traveling to staff a flight the following morning in Louisville, Kentucky.

Video of Dao being yanked from his seat and dragged down the aisle was viewed millions of times.

In the two-page letter to United, Transportation Department Assistant General Counsel Blane Workie said the agency takes action when an airline repeatedly or egregiously violates consumerprotection laws.