United Passenger May Sue Chicago Along With the Airline

The United Airlines passenger dragged from a plane Sunday will require reconstructive surgery and both United and the city of Chicago are responsible for Dr. David Dao's injuries, his attorney said Thursday.

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By Lauren Zumbach and Ally Marotti

The United Airlines passenger dragged from a plane Sunday will require reconstructive surgery and both United and the city of Chicago are responsible for Dr. David Dao's injuries, his attorney said Thursday.

Blaming an overly aggressive response by the city's Aviation Department officers and accusing United of failing to protect its customer, attorney Thomas Demetrio said the incident will likely result in a lawsuit.

"I would defy anyone to suggest that there was not unreasonable force and violence used to help Dr. Dao disembark that plane," Demetrio said at a news conference.

Dao, 69, of Elizabethtown, Ky., and his wife were flying home to Louisville, Ky. through Chicago O'Hare International Airport after a vacation in California. Dao was one of four passengers told to leave a full flight to make room for four airline employees. When he refused, he was dragged from the plane and suffered a significant concussion, a broken nose, a sinus injury and lost two front teeth, Demetrio said.

His wife also was asked to leave after Dao was pulled from the flight, attorneys said. Dao was discharged from the hospital Wednesday night, Demetrio said, but did not attend the news conference.

"He said that he left Vietnam in 1975, when Saigon fell, and he was on a boat, and he said he was terrified. He said that being dragged down the aisle was more horrifying and terrible than what he experienced in leaving Vietnam," Demetrio said.

While Aviation Department officers who pulled Dao from the plane were not United employees, Demetrio said United is ultimately responsible for what happens on its flights. Airline employees should have stepped in once they saw officers' "forceful, violent" response, he said.

Demetrio acknowledged Dao could have chosen to comply with the airline and officers' instructions to leave the aircraft. Under federal law, airlines are allowed to remove passengers from a flight for failing to comply with instructions from the crew.

Dao and his wife, both doctors, had patients to see the next day and needed to get home, Demetrio said. He declined to comment on how many patients Dao needed to see or where he practices.

"What happened to my dad should never happen to any human being regardless of the circumstances," Dao's daughter, Crystal Dao Pepper, said at the news conference.

At the start of a City Council hearing on the issue Thursday, the chairman of the Aviation Committee, Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, warned that city and United Airlines officials would not be able to answer some questions because of "pending litigation."

And Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, suggested taxpayers will end up bearing the brunt of a lawsuit.

"It is especially troublesome to Chicago taxpayers that now they will be saddled with lawsuits alleging misconduct by city employees who joined with United employees to drag a passenger off the plane and, in the process, knock out his teeth, bloody his lip, inflict a concussion and cause him to be hospitalized," Burke said. "Chicago employees should not be doing the dirty work for the 'Friendly Skies' Airline."

Demetrio said Dao had not heard from United or the city. In a nationally televised interview Wednesday, United CEO Oscar Munoz said the airline had been attempting to contact the family, and in a statement after the news conference, United said it had contacted Dao to apologize.

A lawsuit could create a conversation about how passengers should be treated on flights, Demetrio said.

Dao's attorneys have taken the first step toward a lawsuit, asking the Cook County Circuit Court for an order requiring United and the city to keep records from the flight, including video and cockpit records. A hearing has been scheduled Monday, Demetrio said.

"For a long time, airlines, United in particular, have bullied us. They have treated us less than maybe we deserve," he said.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, has said she would propose legislation barring airlines from involuntarily bumping passengers from oversold flights.

In a Thursday statement responding to the news conference, United again apologized and said it will take "immediate, concrete action" to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

The airline reiterated several changes detailed by Munoz on Wednesday. It will not ask law enforcement officers to remove passengers from flights unless it is a matter of safety and security and is reviewing policies around how it handles oversold flights and incentivizes passengers to volunteer, along with how it works with airport authorities and local law enforcement. United also plans to improve training programs to "ensure our employees are prepared and empowered to put our customers first."

Demetrio declined to say where Dao is staying, but said he "has no interest in ever seeing an airplane again. My guess is he'll be driven back to Kentucky. I can't say I blame him."

Hal Dardick contributed.

(c)2017 the Chicago Tribune

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