Posted on 04/11/2017 12:32:28 PM PDT by LouAvul
The man dragged from a full United Express flight by airport police in Chicago is a Kentucky physician who was convicted more than a decade ago of felony charges involving his prescribing of drugs.
But while the passenger's unflattering history quickly became the focus of attention, there's no indication that his past influenced how he was treated or that the airline or police were aware of his background. And it's unlikely that officials would have known anything about him other than basic identifying information such as his name and address, if that.
A person with knowledge of the Sunday evening flight who was not authorized to publicly release the information told The Associated Press that the passenger was David Dao, 69, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He did not return messages from the AP.
While screaming can be heard on the videos, nowhere is Dao seen attacking the security officers. In fact, he appears relatively passive both when he was dragged down the aisle of the jet and when he is seen standing in the aisle later saying quietly, "I want to go home, I want to go home."
(Excerpt) Read more at windstream.net ...
That's what a lot of people, including some Freepers, don't understand. It's called "Contract of Carriage." And the airline's right to remove a passenger is part of the contract.
Honestly, he acted like an addict who needed to get back to his stash.
Doctors need to be randomly drug tested.
Probably, but that was not the case here, the doctor provided drugs to his boyfriend in exchange for sexual favors.
Initially I blamed United. But after hearing more evidence, I feel both sides are to blame, perhaps United more. I do not have much sympathy towards doctors caught illegally prescribing medicine or running pill mills. They are a big part of the addiction problem
Basically, Him being dragged of this flight could cost him his practice! I hope he gets a Big settlement! I mean BIG!
One might think he was concussed from being knocked unconscious a few minutes earlier by Chicago Dept of Aviation cops.
I saw that. He was saying "Just kill me" and "I want to go home". He was already bloody, so it was when he ran back on the plane. I am firmly in the camp that believes United was way, way out of line physically removing a paid passenger after boarding, but there was something wrong with this guy way beyond being emotionally distraught from being dragged off the plane. Maybe drugs or psychiatric illness, if this guy was my doctor, I would find a new one immediately.
If so, it needs to be updated. I was bumped off a flight 25 years ago and received the same $400, a hotel and meal vouchers. I wasn’t unhappy at all, since I was in Hawaii. Didn’t need the hotel, as I was staying with a friend. Next day, I checked in and they were overbooked again, so they put me in first class. Extra day in Hawaii, more comfy seat for 7 hours and $400 in my pocket. Not bad, but something tells me Mr. Dao is going to get a much sweeter deal.
If these people only knew my ‘indiscretions’ they’d probably want to lynch me.
UA doesn't need to settle. They didn't do anything wrong. They were within their rights to bump those 4 people of which 3 complied and this drama queen didn't so the captain or the crew under his/her direction called airport security to remove the offending perp who refused to leave. Getting off that plane was not an option for him and due to his obvious to us now mental health problem; he was forced to leave.
He only had two choices at that point. Walk off the plane like a man or be dragged off like a screaming toddler. He obviously chose to act like a toddler and was treated as such. In the future they may start using knock out darts or something to subdue difficult passengers with full legal authority and no chance of being sued for it because of unruly unreasonable passengers like this.
If the airlines didn't have a lot of discretion on how they run their operation to get thousands of people per day to their destinations; ticket prices might be double or even triple. This is why they can overbook and also because it's not common for everyone to show up for every flight so some seats may go empty while some other passengers are waiting to go on a standby basis.
In this case the airline got a late notice of needing a flight crew at their destination so another flight with maybe hundreds of people would not be delayed.
The guy has hired two kinds of lawyers
this case will never go to trial. They will settle. He probably could have gotten more than he will if he had a different background
Hey wise-ass - you’re not supposed to make PERFECT SENSE here. We’re supposed to be governed by our emotions, because:
1) We hate flying
2) We hate United
3) There’s a video
The fact that he was either drugged-out or mentally unstable (or both) means only ONE THING. There were a lot of lucky patients yesterday that didn’t have to deal with this crackpot felon.
:)
LOL. Here we are, the self-proclaimed PROTECTORS against media manipulation...and yet we see a video and figure that we know ALL THE ANSWERS.
I suspect that you’re like me - before jumping to a conclusion, such as United being thrown to the wolves in this case, perhaps it’s wise to step back a bit and try to get more details...as we’re finding out today with this guy’s felony conviction.
I am not certain of the consequences of a doctor no show. It is possible that Doctor Dao may be penalized for patient negligence and lose his medical license permanently. Because of his illegal drug activities in 2002, he was on thin ice to fully regain his practice. This event may have dire consequences for his future practice. And United may pay a hefty price for it.
UA broke the law by evicting him.
And it is not clear to me that an air-crew even gave the order. (Gate folks are not air-crew)
Dr. Dao was unconscious when UA dragged him into the jet way and left him there while they looked for wheelchair.
Dr. Dao regained consciousness and for good reason was a bit out of it.
No, but he needed to get to Louisville in time to see his patients, and he relied upon United's promise to get him there.
Instead, United called upon the local pigs to extract him from the flight to make room for a United crew to be rushed into place for a future flight, for which United had failed to adequately provision.
So, it comes down to, Dr Dao sees his patients or some set of Louisville pax get to not have their flight canceled / delayed due to United incompetence and crew unavailability.
As a long-time United hater (despite the fact that my mother stewed for them and my uncle was gate agent, both back in the forties), I am pleased at the amount of negative publicity this story has generated.
United is a creature of Chicago. United sucks. Chicago sucks. Richard J. Daley's signature appears on my long form, but I reject Chicago!
You do know he snuck back on after being removed once
Some think he did the bloody mouth thing himself
He’s a nut
A fag in denial
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