David Dao, passenger removed from United flight, now in spotlight

When security officers yanked Dr. David Dao off a United Airlines flight Sunday, bloodying him as they dragged him down the aisle, he quickly was thrust into the international spotlight.

Videos of the incident went viral, with thousands of people expressing support for Dao on social media after he was taken off United Express Flight 3411 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The airline said Dao was one of four passengers selected for removal so that United personnel could be seated on the full flight.

At an Elizabethtown, Kentucky, medical practice where Dao recently worked, the incident was the talk of the office Tuesday, said Donna Nadeau, the office manager. She said reporters were calling to find out more about the man on the plane after the videos and coverage of the incident were published.

United has come under scathing criticism for how it handled the situation, ranging from its insistence that passengers give up seats to the level of violence used by officers who yanked Dao from the aircraft.

"He's a pleasant guy,” Nadeau said of Dao. "He really, really had a passion to get back into the medical field.”

Dao was trying to regain his medical license when he worked at the practice from August 2015 to August 2016, Nadeau said. Dao had surrendered his medical license in February 2005 after being convicted of drug-related offenses, according to documents filed with the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure last June. Broadcast and print coverage of Dao's arrest, conviction and sentencing made his name familiar to some Kentuckians.

Dao’s wife, Dr. Teresa Dao, has a medical practice in Elizabethtown, about 40 miles south of Louisville. Office staff at her clinic said Tuesday that neither Dao nor his wife wished to speak with a Courier-Journal reporter regarding the United incident.

Dao is undergoing treatment in a Chicago hospital for his injuries.

“The family of Dr. Dao wants the world to know that they are very appreciative of the outpouring of prayers, concern and support they have received.  Currently, they are focused only on Dr. Dao’s medical care and treatment,” said Chicago attorney Stephen L. Golan of Golan Christie Taglia, who along with Chicago aviation attorney Thomas A. Demetrio of Corboy & Demetrio, represents the Dao family.

Until Dr. Dao is released from the hospital, the family is asking for privacy and will not be making any statements to the media, both attorneys said.

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In the videos taken Sunday by passengers, Dao refuses to give up his seat. He screams as a Chicago aviation security officer begins pulling him from his seat, and Dao's head strikes an armrest before he is dragged down the aisle by his arms, seemingly unconscious.

The Chicago Department of Aviation has placed the security officer who dragged Dao from his seat on leave and said in a statement Monday that it does not condone his actions and that the incident on the United flight was not in accordance with its standard operating procedure. A representative for the aviation department also told the Courier-Journal on Tuesday that their officers did not take Dao into custody Sunday after “they assisted in moving him from the plane” and that it was her understanding that Dao had not been charged with any crimes.

United CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for the incident Monday, but hours later he sent a letter to the airline's employees lauding the behavior of the flight crew when Dao, whom he described as "disruptive and belligerent," was removed. He credited employees with following established procedures. Munoz apologized a second time Tuesday afternoon after coming under intense fire for his initial response and email to employees.

Audra Bridges, a Louisville resident who was on the flight, told the Courier-Journal that Dao said he was a doctor and needed to see patients the next morning. Bridges said passengers were "shocked and appalled" by the incident, and thousands of people on social media have expressed sympathy for Dao and outrage over the way the situation was handled.

Dao, who went to medical school in Vietnam in the 1970s before moving to the U.S., has worked as a pulmonologist in Elizabethtown but was arrested in 2003 and eventually convicted of drug-related offenses after an undercover investigation, according to the documents filed with the state board of medical licensure.

The licensure board documents allege that he was involved in fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was sexually involved with a patient who used to work for his practice and assisted police in building a case against him.

Dao was convicted of multiple felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud and deceit in November 2004 and was placed on five years of supervised probation in January 2005, according to the documents. He surrendered his medical license the next month.

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure permitted Dao to resume practicing medicine in 2015 under certain conditions.

Dao and three other passengers were asked to leave the aircraft because the flight was full and four crew members needed their seats so they could be in Louisville the next day, an airline spokesman said. Bridges said the airline had offered compensation worth up to $800 for passengers to give up their seats, but no one took the offer.

Many people online have suggested Dao should sue United over what happened to him on board that flight. But Ladd Sanger, a Dallas-based aviation attorney who represents clients in lawsuits against airlines, said that kind of case can be hard to win in court since “the legal side is heavily weighted in favor of law enforcement and the airline.”

Based on a combination of federal aviation regulations, the federal Airline Deregulation Act and the contract of carriage airlines attach to their ticket purchases, Sanger said airlines are essentially permitted to refuse to board someone on a flight or to remove someone from a plane.

The contract of carriage is “incredibly one-sided” in the airline’s favor, Sanger said. And once a person has boarded an airplane, they are required by federal law to comply with the flight crew’s instructions.

Technically, a passenger who refuses to get off a plane could be charged with violating federal law, even if the officials who removed them from the flight exercised their authority in an excessive way, he said. It's a situation where "the passenger almost always loses."

“Once the airline labels you as a disruptive passenger and that you pose any kind of a risk to the flight, then you have to go,” Sanger said. “You’re going to go voluntarily or you’re going to go in handcuffs, but you’re going.”

Reporter Matt Glowicki contributed to this report. USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Additional coverage

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