A video of a passenger being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight began circulating on social media and news networks on April 10. We’ve all seen the video by now, or have at least heard about the incident.
The passenger in question, 69-year-old Dr. David Dao, was randomly selected by a computer to leave the aircraft due to overbooking by United. After rejecting the demand to leave his seat, Dr. Dao was forcefully dragged out of the plane.
Passengers on the plane could be overheard screaming and telling the airport security to stop hurting Dr. Dao. Security continued doing their job, despite the violent and arguably unreasonable request from their superiors.
Moments later, the doctor came back onboard the plane with blood around his mouth and began uttering “I need to go home, I need to go home” multiple times. Why he was allowed back on board is unknown.
Many of the details about the situation are unknown. Only what was caught on camera by passengers can be taken as fact in this case. With the abundance of smartphones present in the country, the incident was sure to be caught on video.
Many questions are still unanswered here. Why did security act so rough and violent? What happened off camera to Dr. Dao to make him physically damaged and so emotionally distraught? Why are passengers of an airline, people who have paid good money to fly, treated like numbers by the company?
This incident has also brought to light the commonly used tactic of overbooking. The act of overbooking is when airlines sell more tickets than there are seats on a plane, in hopes that not everyone who has paid will show up.
It is a financially smart thing to do that maximizes the profits of a company, but it has the potential to leave passengers without a seat. The very concept of overbooking simply should not exist, but companies will do whatever gets them the most money possible.
According to NextShark.com, Dr. David Dao has not yet filed a lawsuit against United, but he has secured a lawyer and a petition has been started to collect evidence relating to the incident. With the abundance of video evidence against United and public opinion of the doctor being defensive of him, any court case that Dao may pursue is likely to go in his favor.
United CEO, Oscar Munoz, has responded, stating “the incident on Flight 3411 has been a humbling learning experience for all of us here at United and for me in particular. In addition to apologizing to Dr. Dao, as well as all of the passengers aboard, I also want to apologize to all our customers. You can and should expect more from us and as CEO, I take full responsibility for making this right.”
No employees are being fired, and the names of officer(s) who hurt Dr. Dao are not being released. “[The incident] was a system failure across various areas, so there was never a consideration for firing an employee,” said United’s CEO.
Physically hurting your customers is a horrible to way to bring in business, so the company really needs to assure the public that similar actions will not occur in the future. What happened on United Flight 3411 was unnecessary and unjustified, and the CEO of United has (thankfully) officially pushed that message to the media. United at least knows they are in the wrong.
While the events on April 10 have surely hurt the company, United Airlines seems determined to better themselves after the costly mistake. Only time will tell what United will actually do to prevent further upsets.
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Steven • Apr 28, 2017 at 10:32 am
sick article!
colin walker • Apr 21, 2017 at 11:51 am
We heard it that way, but they are some facts that this article missed.
1. The reason they overbooked: United needed people to get off the plane because of a few pilots needed to be flown over to the other airport to fly a new plane. United could not wait it out so that was not an option.
2. Why the doctor was bleeding: When security came to pull him out, he acted limp as resistance. Witnesses report he hit his head on a corner as he was being dragged out. He would not have gotten hurt if his resistance wasn’t immature, and/or it would not have happened if united didn’t drag him out.
3. Why did he want to stay on the plane?: When told to leave, he said he had patients who needed his help. This claim was proven true.
4. Did they start with violence?: No. The captain offered a free round trip, and I believe around $600 extra to the person who volunteered to go off. But as we know, nobody did. That is when they escalated to choosing a random person.
5. What is my opinion?: United was not justified for their actions, for situations like this have happened before. What the captain SHOULD have done, is refuse to fly the plane until the man, or somebody leaves the plane. Now the conflict has shifted from the passengers v the captain, to the passenger v other passengers. At some point, somebody is going to give up their seat, and have their free round trip and $600 cash. The company has the right to do that. Look it up. Also, many public, and privately owned companies have done this and THAT never sparked any conflict.
The doctor is also at fault, If he didn’t resist while the security took him off, Not only will he had not been hurt, but he could have used that to his innocence, saying how he didn’t rebel in any way other than saying he wasn’t going to leave the plane. THEN united would have been in trouble, but no. Now there is a 2-sided conflict because the Doctor got hurt “by security”. This is like refusing to go through the security line, but still wanting to fly on the plane. You can say that you have rights, but they have rights too. They can deny service (as long as they give a full refund) to anybody, as long as it does not break the 13-15th amendments. In this case they did not.
Kid • Apr 21, 2017 at 10:27 am
Great job covering it like 3 weeks later. Nice pun, btw.
Not Hating just stating • Apr 21, 2017 at 9:47 am
Maybe if he got up and listened this would not have happened.
I want to work for DHS • Apr 21, 2017 at 9:31 am
I think that in all honesty we all need to realize that none of us know the whole story or maybe even the real story. I myself have heard several variations of this event and all of them were different in some way.
I have heard that Dr. Dao had accepted the travel voucher that was upwards of $800, paid expenses for the overnight stay, and a free flight, (doing the math that is a great offer and you get to walk away with $800 in you pocket) and that after he had accepted the voucher he still proceeded to board the flight. I have also heard that he had gotten off the plane when asked originally but had snuck back on and what was on the video was a result of that second boarding and that him boarding the plane with blood on his face was him boarding for a third time. I also heard that the reason his face was bloody was because he may have tried to escape custody from the security officers. I have also heard that he was selected by the computer but his wife would not let him leave her, and I have heard the inverse where his wife accepted the travel voucher and he refused.
Regardless of which version of the story is the truth, Dr. Dao could be charged with a fine, felony, or even both. Under Chapter 33, Section 6, Subsection A,
“A. Passenger Noncompliance. Passenger noncompliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety regulations may result in interference with a crewmember. This is a violation of 14 CFR part 121 and may also be a criminal violation under Title 49 of the United States Code (49 U.S.C.) § 46318(a). Air carriers should have procedures in their manuals to ensure that crewmembers know what actions to take if a passenger does not comply with the safety regulations and/or interferes with a crewmember.”
Dr. Dao could be found liable. This is directly from faa.gov (http://fsims.faa.gov/WDocs/8900.1/V03%20Tech%20Admin/Chapter%2033/03_033_006.htm) and shows legal authority for an airline to bring on security. Also we do not know if Dr. Dao was intoxicated at the time of the event, and yes some people do get busy at the restaurants before flights. Also living in our current day in age where security has been heighted to prevent terror attacks, it is usually a good idea to listen to security officers, as according to all stories I have heard about this incident he was asked by security to leave the plane after he refused the flight attendant. So basically even if a lawsuit by Dr. Dao comes to fruition, he most likely will not win based off of federal Law.