Posted on 04/12/2017 3:55:29 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
Buckle up, United Airlines, because you're about to hit stormy skies.
The airline has enraged the public this week for violently yanking an uncooperative passenger off an overbooked flight.
Now, the company is gearing up for a legal battle that can't be fixed with a half-assed apology tweet.
While United was playing the aviation blame game, the victim of Sunday's incident, Dr. David Dao, enlisted the aid of two prominent Chicago attorneys, hinting that he plans on giving the airline quite the ass kicking in court.
The 69-year-old medical professional has hired corporate law specialist Stephen Golan and personal injury specialist Thomas Demetrio. This suggests Dao will not only sue for United's mistreatment of him, but for their procedures which allowed them to kick him off to make room for their own crew.
(Excerpt) Read more at perezhilton.com ...
“Dao, who has retained lawyer Thomas Demetrio.....”
Of Corboy & Demetrio
The late Phil Corboy, was the Chicago version of the great lawyer J. Noble Daggett, who forced the G.A.V&G into receivership.
This goes on every day on every airline.
We hardly ever have a guy refuse like this, and throw a temper tantrum.
One does, and of course the airline industry that has been doing this for decades, must now change everything for one dip stick.
No.
He might be one dip-stick, but many, probably millions, wish they had the fortitude to do what he did.
Finally, a wrong approach to problem solving is going to be corrected by the airlines.
What would you suggest as a fix to this problem?
Do you want them to charter separate aircraft to move these people around?
What happens when they book 104 seats and 98 people show up?
Are you willing to pay 10-20% more for your tickets?
It is very simple and the above article and public high dudgeon against UAL are all ridiculous.
The airline has the right, for any nondiscriminatory purpose, to remove any pax from an a/c at any time the door is open. You may not like it, and there are rules for compensation, but that is the law, the filed tariffs and the Contract of Carriage.
The passenger refused the flight attendant’s repeated requests then legal demands over a 12-minute period that he leave the aircraft. He was then in violation of 49 U.S. Code § 46504.
United then called law enforcement to remove him, as required by law. Chicago LEO’s asked/told him on multiple occasions that he had to leave a/c. That’s when he began his false cries that he had to be in surgery the next morning.
They then ordered him to leave one more time. LEOs then told him he was under arrest for repeated vio of 49 U.S. Code § 46504 and Illinois law (Failure to Obey...) and he would have to leave with them.
He refused to comply and passively then violently resisted that lawful arrest. LEOs then had to extract him from his seat and he fought them.
This is all confirmed in a new video that has now surfaced of the Dr. taken minutes before the previously released one.
Dao, who is seated next to the window, says to the officers standing in the aisle, “I won’t go. I’m a physician I have to work tomorrow, eight o’clock.” That has been proven to be a lie, as he no longer has surgical privileges, They were taken away by the state for his being a drug pusher to kids, and only very limited internal medicine privileges recently restored. , Even if he did have surgery, it is immaterial.
Dao who is on his cellphone, appears to say something about making a “lawsuit against United Airlines” but does not raise his voice until the officers continue to tell him he has to leave. “I am not going,” he repeats, while shaking his head.
The officer then suggests that he may have to “drag” Dao off. “Well, you can then drag me. I don’t go, I’m not going,” the doctor says again. “I’m staying right here.” “I’m just telling you, it’s going to be a lot harder for you,” Dao replies, “Yes, I know that, I’d rather go to jail.”
Cops simple defense, (besides Sovereign Immunity) “We told him what was going to happen, and he wanted it to happen so he could sue United Airlines. He chose what happened.”
Then the other video started.
The entire violence was caused by an arrested man actively resisting that arrest and removal from the a/c. Did Chicago LEO’s overreact? Possibly, but the blame is not UAL’s. It started when the pax refused multiple lawful orders, resisted arrest, and what happened subsequently was his fault.
There was no breach of contract. If there was one, he was the violator in failing to follow the lawful order of a flight crew member. There was a violation of Federal law, and if he pushes it, the airline’s lawyers will be pushing the FAA to impose a statutory $25,000 civil fine for interference with a flight crew member.... and possibly some jail time.... and he would have to pony up lawyers fees and ant fine before any possible damages from the airline would be received.... and airlines are VERY well represented. In addition, the necessity for his forced removal after his violation of the law would only increase the severity of HIS act, not lessen it, as would his reported reentry to the a/c.
Also, I wonder how many drinks are on his Amex (discoverable) charged just before the flight... and I’ll bet the flight crew and LEOs might just testify he smelled of alcohol.
A parallel example. Let’s say are stopped for 40 in a 30.
When running your license, the LEO gets a hit saying you have an open warrant from Spokane, Washington. He announces he is going to arrest you and take you to jail for that.
His information is wrong, and you know it, because you have never been within 500 miles of the State of Washington.
Regardless, you must submit to the arrest or face the physical and legal consequences for not doing do.
You later have good grounds for a civil suit, but that is for arguing later, not on the street, on in airline seat. If you resist, you can be charged and so serious time, regardless of the incorrectness of the “Spokane” charge.
This drug-pushing-on-kids doctor set himself up for what he got, because he wanted to sue United, and if Dao is ever foolish to take it to trial, that’s going to be the jury’s verdict.
If I had the power to fix this problem I would make sure I would fix a lot of stuff.
As it is, part of this fix is going to come from an irresistible force, the marketplace and public pressure.
And just like there aren’t any more hijackings, and there are n’t any more planes stopped on the runway for countless hours with passengers trapped inside on the whim of the airline, this kind of unfair treatment is going to stop too.
The airline had years to fix it on their own, they decided to wait until they were forced.
That time is now.
And the beauty of all this is that it’s going to be fixed without an increase in ticket prices.
We’ll see about that.
Nothing in life is free.
There will be some trade off.
I thought you would have some suggestions.
That will be very expensive if CEO lost.
Do you not realize you are talking about the WRONG doc?! They misidentified him in some reports!
“The alleged doctor was in violation of FCC regulations and was declared and advised he was belligerent and could not continue to fly”
When was this decision made before or after?
This story keeps changing and changing. Before you know the “alleged doctor” will have beat down the helpless cops and have dragged himself off unconscious.
How does he become an alleged doctor but his behavior is set in stone. When did he exactly become belligerent?
The alleged part before the doctor makes the doctor suspicious in nature. This is what fake news is all about. Attaching alleged in front of the word doctor attempts to denigrate the individual but later on when the behavior is talked about there is no alleging the behavior of the individual it is stated as matter of fact.
Any airline that overbooks should not remove a paying passenger from a boarded plane due to overbooking including for employee transport. This should be taken care of before boarding the passengers.
I likes you but this account is not factual. He was sitting in his seat. He refused to volunteer which was his right under United’s rules of carriage. Check ‘em on the website, I did.
Three goons, in various outfits arrive and tell him he has to leave. He says no I need to see patients in the morning and his lawyer is on the phone telling him he has the right to stay. One goon in baggy jeans tazes him and pulls him over the seat rest striking his head. He screams from the tazing but is immediately silent as he is concussed from his head striking the seat rest. He is dragged silently up the aisle dripping blood from his nose & mouth while all the passengers say “ this is terrible, there was no reason to treat him like that” etc.
They dump him in the walkway outside the plane and go off to get a stretcher. He comes to and staggers back into the plane, runs back to a pillar near his seat and clutches it saying I just want to go home, kill me, just kill me. He has a concussion he was admitted to the hospital in Chicago. In the end they take everyone out of the plane to clean up the blood & reboard them all including Dao and fly to Chicago 2 hrs late. Personally I think that flying him with a head injury and no medical evaluation was very dangerous, the barotrauma could worsen his condition.
According to this video of the doctor before the other video, he was not belligerent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dictjRe7n_g
“Point is, they didn’t know this guy’s legal or illegal history when they decided to jerk him off the flight,”
So tell me just how does the activity described below have any bearing on the situation on the plane? And you will note that this happened 12 years ago!
“Dr. David Dao was charged in 2005 with 98 felony drug counts for illegally prescribing and trafficking painkillers. Prosecutors claimed Dao fraudulently filled prescriptions for hydocodone, Oxycontin and Percocet.”
“A long explanation of the FCC regulations and United’s compliance was detailed on Rush.”
So if the FCC is involved, what was this guy doing, playing his Walkman too loud? The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission.
Perhaps you are thinking of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).
Thank you for your description. Very strange how reports can be so different. I’m not liking what I hear in this one.
I’ll leave it at that for now. We’ll see how it shakes out.
My report was aired over the Rush Limbaugh show, and at the time he did it, perhaps it was the best description to that point.
I do want an accurate story to prevail, so it is good you presented this.
Where did you hear this?
“The flight was overbooked”
NO is wasn’t! They had boarded everyone, they were seated and it was a full flight. Then these four airline employees show up who “must travel” because they have crew assignments the next day out of Louisville. As others have pointed out this wasn’t a denied boarding issue. He’s going to retire on the eight-figure settlement that UAL is going to offer.
And none of this has a damned thing to do with his problems as a doctor overprescribing painkillers.
You remind me of a guy who wants spark plugs for his car and the counter man wants to know if his car has whitewall tires.
Sorry DO, I usually agree with you but not this time.
You don’t have to agree with me.
To me it doesn’t make much difference if it’s an overbook problem or an issue of staff that must fly. I’ll explain that.
Not trying to belittle the point, but the upshot is that either way four people had to be bumped. One could be argued to be a more valid reason to bump or not. I understand that.
I agree that it doesn’t have anything to do with it, but if he was being paid under the table to over prescribe, it does go to character doesn’t it.
Thanks for the alternative view.
One of the posters provided and totally different description of the incident. I’m going to have to see a more definitive breakdown of what took place now.
This version made him look a lot more innocent, if it’s accurate.
Not sure when one is.
I agree. No rushing to judgement. I did a lot of looking up conditions of carriage today and United broke its own rules in this case. That’s why they are back tracking. The tasing is anecdotal, reported in some accounts but not mentioned in others. It fits well to me with what I saw & heard, the very sudden short burst of screaming that stopped so abruptly and his limp state.
This is one of the articles that talks about his behavior and the sequence of events which seemed credible to me.
http://wtvr.com/2017/04/12/united-fallout-two-more-officers-placed-on-leave/
The video is a little long and contains lots of someone’s opinions but it contains both clips showing the passenger being ejected and after he returns. You can skip to the 1:45 mark where she shows the video and explains the back story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmxcTtS22u8
Thanks. I’ll come back and read this tomorrow.
I’m out a here for the night.
Take care.
Appreciate the note and links.
So they didn’t just beat and bloody any passenger, they beat and bloodied a 69 year old senior citizen ? This just gets worse and worse for United and their bully boys. What will they do next, play pinata with a paraplegic ?
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