Posted on 04/11/2018 8:31:02 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
A Chicago aviation security officer fired after forcibly removing a United Airlines passenger is suing the airline and his former employer, according to court documents.
James Long filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the department, its commissioner, Ginger Evans, and United.
On April 9, 2017, aviation security officers, including Long, were called to a United flight for a passenger who refused to give up his seat. The responding officers approached the passenger, Dr. David Dao, and tried to persuade him to leave calmly, after which Dao told them, “I’m not leaving this flight that I paid money for. I don’t care if I get arrested,” according to the lawsuit.
Video taken by other passengers showed Long dragging Dao from the plane. Dao’s mouth was bloodied from hitting his head on an armrest during the altercation, according to court documents.
Long and three other aviation security officers were placed on administrative leave. In August, Long was fired.
Long asserts that United should have known calling in the security officers would “require the use of physical force.” Long completed five months of police recruit training program, but the lawsuit says the Department of Aviation didn’t provide training on the “level of force continuum.”
“But for the CDA’s negligence and failure to train (Long) how to respond to an escalating situation with an Airline Passenger, (he) would not have acted in the manner he did, which resulted in his termination.”
The CDA and Evans “acted with malice and with the intention to harm, and recklessly disregarded (Long’s) rights and the consequences that may result to him by failing to investigation the truth of Defendant Evans’s oral and written statements about Long,” the complaint says.
Long is seeking damages because of his termination including back pay and payments to his 401(k) retirement plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Note that HE hit his head- they did not do it. He was looking to have a claim and lawsuit. Others on the plane said that he said so.
He was not unconscious when he was dragged off the plane, he was pretending- you can see he is holding his head up himself. And he got up and ran back onto the plane when they left him in the hallway to go get a gurney.
He should have been arrested and the pussy CEO of the airline should have said so.
This was PRE-TRUMP, though...so the lack of testicles was rampant in the media witch-trial atmosphere of the day, where you dare not speaketh the truth and must apologize even if you are not wrong, so they could use it against you in court.
The problem was not that the security officer was fired but that the CEO of United wasn’t
Sorry, but I agree with the victim, Dr. David Dao, that United Airlines was out of line in removing paying passengers from the flight in order to seat four of their employees.
United’s own policies at the time prohibited this behavior.
Therefore whatever happened to Dr. Dao is a liability for United.
“This was PRE-TRUMP, though”
article says event happened April 2017
Dao shouldn't have been forced to give up his seat he'd paid for and was already seated in. It's very bad policy.
They are NOT Chicago cops!
NOT sworn officers.
They did not even move like a real copper.
City cops have a swagger, I think they teach it at the Chicago Police Academy.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-united-chicago-aviation-police-met-20170413-story.html
They’re not real police. They cannot even make an arrest.
The department was created as a favor for a Mayor Daley bodyguard that was made head of the department and somehow it just kept going...
This articles falsifies by ommission.
Dao had his TEETH KNOCKED OUT.
You sound like an advocate for the “security guard.”
That 'somehow' is the tactic used by politicians wherein, the MORE you SPEND, the MORE you can STEAL.
Maybe these things always happened without incident, but up until a few years ago I never heard of so many paying passengers getting roughed up to give up their seat.
Maybe a sign of the troubled times in society.
What was his crime?
I hope Mr. Long wins his suit and United gets some more bad publicity thereby. UAL deserves whatever drek rolls or sloshes their way.
They had no right to remove him from a seat that he paid for. If they couldn’t get volunteers they should have kept increasing the amount paid until someone finally bit. UNITED CREATED THIS PROBLEM BY OVERBOOKING THE FLIGHT, they’re the ones who should have to pay to get people to give up their reservations. Physical force should never have entered the situation at all.
Yup. That is exactly the point. The passenger had paid for the ticket and was even seated in the craft. If he didn't want to give up his seat, it shouldn't have had to. If it costs United $20k per seat, they'd have to make a cost/benefit analysis to see if it was worth it to the company to overbook flights. In any other industry, selling more tickets than you have seats available would be considered fraud.
He refused to leave the aircraft- that is a felony.
He was HEARD saying he was going to scam the airlines.
He injured himself, they did not injure him, that’s fraud.
Pick one.
The airlines behavior was inappropriate; however Dao was completely over the line, unlawful, and in violation of his ticket.
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