Overbooked United Airlines Passenger Beaten and Forcibly Removed from Plane
All the Internet has been talking about is the man that was physically pulled off of a United Airlines flight in Chicago. It has been revealed the man’ name is David Dao and he is an internal medicine doctor in Kentucky:
The passenger who was dragged from an United Airlines flight is 69-year-old grandfather Dr David Dao.
Footage of the Vietnamese-American being hauled off the overbooked flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday caused outrage on Monday.
Dr Dao was heard in videos captured of his shocking eviction saying he needed to get home to Louisville so he could see patients.
DailyMail.com can reveal Dr Dao is a father of five and a grandfather, who specializes in internal medicine. Four of his five children are doctors. [Daily Mail]
You can read more at the link, but if you haven’t seen the video yet here it is:
It seems a lot of people are directing their anger towards United Airlines for overbooking the flight without understanding that overbooking is standard policy in the airline industry. It has only happened to me once many years ago when flying American Airlines. It happened in the terminal and not on the plane which I can understand would make Mr. Dao more upset. However, I have seen overbooked flights have people removed while sitting in the plane as well and never have I seen anyone resist getting off the plane.
As upset as I am sure Mr. Dao was, he should not have become non-compliant with the United staff. Regardless Mr. Dao should have never been beaten by the Aviation Security Officers either. The guy that slammed Mr. Dao face into the arm rest to get him removed from the plane should find another line of work. However, before resorting to police to remove a non-compliant passenger the airline should have increased the compensation to get someone to volunteer. I would be surprised if the airline offered $2,000 and a hotel stay that someone would not have volunteered to get off of the flight. It seems that would be better business than the PR nightmare United is facing today.
This is why I fly Korean Air or Asiana Airlines when flying to and from Korea. I cannot imagine Korean Air or Asiana resorting to force to remove an overbooked passenger. However, with a domestic US airline something like this does not surprise me at all.
United offered the passengers $400 and then $800 to volunteer and none accepted. Supposedly there was a person that said they would volunteer if they made it $1600 and United refused and decided to do “random” selection.
The passenger was already seated, this really makes no sense, there should be no need to bump a seated passenger. If they need to bump someone bump the last to show. Actually it appears that it wasn’t even “booked” passengers – United EMPLOYEES were the ones that they were bumping passengers in order to put them on the plane. Supposedly these employees were needed at the destination or they would risk a “domino effect” of delays. If that is really true then that is some pretty poor planning and completely unacceptable to be bumping passengers, let alone ones that have been boarded and seated. I don’t blame the guy one bit for resisting – this was not a security situation this was a catastrophe entirely of United’s own making.
My understanding is that the federal regulations set rights for bumped passengers including minimum required compensation. It appears that $800 was the minimum required compensation in this case. In other words, United was obligated to pay $800 under federal rules to any passenger bumped from that flight.
The problem is that United is using an unethical business practice. When were no takers for the bare minimum compensation required by law, instead of offering more money to find a wiling passenger, United called guys with guns to drag people off the plane. Although United most likely acted within its legal rights, it hard to conclude that its conduct was ethical. To defend United on the basis that United acted within its rights misses the larger point. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This whole incident happened because United was not willing to offer more than the bare minimum of $800.
The laws won’t be changed until it becomes personal for the people making the laws. We’ll have to wait for a congressman or one of their immediate family members to be forcibly removed from a flight.
Or a big donor whose past was less cloudy than Dr Dao…
@JoeC, there is no need to make new laws about overbooking. This has been going on for decades and no one cared about making new laws until now because a Chicago policeman assaulted this non-compliant passenger.
All new laws will do is increase ticket prices for everyone. The airlines overbook to fill seats that are empty for no shows such as someone who was delayed at another airport and could not make the flight. Getting that seat filled means the airline does not have to charge more of the other passengers on the flight to make the flight profitable to operate.
The market will correct what happened because every airline is probably right now quickly updating their protocol to not be the next United right now.
@valiant, the bumped passengers were for a crew that was going to fly a plane in Louisville. If they did not get on that flight that entire flight would be delayed. Four passengers on the Chicago plane would be inconvenienced for the sake of an entire flight in Louisville. As far as poor planning we don’t know the circumstances of what happened. Possibly the original crew for that flight got delayed somewhere and never made it to Louisville which meant they needed another crew or maybe it was just poor planning.
Regardless there is blame to go all around on this. Did United know they needed to get this crew on the plane before everyone boarded? If so they should have screened the passengers for being bumped before boarding. They also could of asked for more money to get people to volunteer to get off the plane.
Mr. Dao once notified he was bumped refused to leave the plane when asked, the other three passengers did. This is a very rare incident simply because Mr. Dao refused to get off the plane. If this happened to me, just like the other three passengers I would have begrudgingly got off the plane because I know the airline is within its rights.
Next to blame is the Chicago policeman who slammed his face into the arm rest. Completely unnecessary to beat this guys face like that and his continued employment with the police department should be reviewed. If he is willing to treat a non-compliant airline passenger like that what is he willing to do to other people?
Ultimately the moral to the story here is for people to act like professionals and responsible adults instead of what transpired.
“The market will correct what happened because every airline is probably right now quickly updating their protocol to not be the next United right now.”
Southwest doesn’t have to rewrite policy, it wouldn’t happen.
A lot of this has to do with employee contracts too. The bigger airlines like United do business a bit differently (because there are a lot more years of paperwork involved…and they’ve merged so many times…think about the way military regs work and there you have it).
That said, I did think about buying some United stock today, and I might do so soon. It took a hit, but people still need to fly and it’s usually quite unpleasant anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JscQXDsSgco
A few years ago I was in the States traveling. I had a last minute change in my schedule, and bought a ticket on US Airways the night before the flight. Everything was pretty typical … went online … found a flight that worked for me … clicked OK to accept the flight … chose my seat … payed … and that was it.
I got to the airport the next day, did the self-check in at a kiosk, got my boarding pass, and headed for the gate. Just as I was approaching the gate, I happened to notice that my boarding pass didn’t have a seat number on it … which I thought was odd.
I approached a lady at the gate counter and asked her about it and she said the flight was oversold and I would have to wait on standby. I told her I made a seat selection when I purchased the ticket and everything came back as confirmed. Her response: “No sir. You didn’t actually confirm the seat you chose. That was only a request for that seat.” I was tempted to say, “WTF kind of BS is that?” But I kept myself in check. She handed me a little foldout brochure explaining the airline’s obligations and the passenger’s rights in the case of an oversold flight. I didn’t have anything else better to do, so I actually read through the brochure as I waited for the boarding to finish. There was something that caught my eye in the brochure — “If you were involuntarily denied boarding, you would be entitled to cash compensation in an amount as described in the ‘Amount of Denied Boarding Compensation’ section.” But there was also a list of dozens of stipulations covering every circumstance imaginable and I was sure that if I didn’t make this flight, they would no doubt find a stipulation (or two or three) that they could use to deny me any kind of meaningful compensation.
After everyone boarded the flight, one of the people working at the gate went in and looked for empty seats, but there were none – and there were no volunteers to take a later flight. So the four or five people and I who were left standing at the gate had to re-book our flights. I was the third person in line to get help finding another flight. When I got up to the counter, the lady said I could wait for another direct flight and get there at 8pm or I could take a flight that stopped in St. Louis first and that would get me in at 6:30pm (the original flight was to arrive at 2:15pm). I opted for the flight that went through St. Louis. As she was making a new boarding pass, I asked, “What about compensation?” She said she could give me a voucher for $200 on a future flight. I said I read something about cash compensation and asked if I could get that instead – and she said I could also get a check. She then did some figuring on a calculator and as a little smile came across her face … she told me I was eligible for a check for $1252. I was a little stunned … the round trip ticket was less than $500 … and I was only going to arrive four hours later than scheduled. After I picked up my jaw, I said I would opt for the check.
I’m quite certain the other people who had been in line in front of me just went along with the new itinerary and never asked about compensation. I’m glad I did!
Note: US Airways went out of business in 2015 (merged with American Airlines).
@Guitard, I will have to remember the cash compensation tip if I get overbooked again. The one time I got overbooked American gave me a bunch of frequent flyer miles.
Just because it is legal for the airline to bump him does not make it right. It was most definitely poor planning – that a company the size of United does not have a contingency personnel better located to enable them to meet their operational requirements without bumping paying, boarded passengers is the definition of poor planning. They are one of the largest airlines in the world and they have forgotten that their reason for being is to fly passengers from point A to point B – not just get an airplane from A to B.
Service on United has really gone down.
In 2001, they would fly you right to your office.
Heard last night that the doctor who was dragged off the plane actually agreed to take the money and give up his seat, then snook on anyway…end result being what we see on that video.
Apparently there was a big conversation on Facebook (on a United pilot’s spouse’s page). I can’t verify but that would seem to fit the evidence.
Apparently the good doctor is also a nutter (unsurprisingly) http://fox13now.com/2017/04/11/doctor-dragged-off-flight-previously-lost-medical-license-for-drug-crimes/
That said, even if the rumor about accepting money and giving up his seat, then taking it, is true (and I’d bet better than average odds it is)
there was still a smarter way to proceed.
The pilot could have announced that there was a person on the plane that needed to get off before they could take off. If he didn’t get off, everyone would have to de-board. At that point, people would be angry at the man. If he was the only one left in the seat after everyone got off no one would have raised an eyebrow when he was dragged away, they’d have just thought (accurately) that he was some crazy guy.
Too early…
He is suing of course.
Now I’m just wondering if that was the intention the whole time.
@valiant, we don’t know if it was poor planning. Like I said before weather could have delayed another crew that was supposed to fly that plane in Louisville. Airline companies cannot predict every possible weather scenario.
If you want airlines to have crews of people just sitting at every airport doing nothing and waiting on call to man an aircraft get ready for ticket prices to go through the roof.
The overbooking system has been around a long time and nothing like this ever happened. What was different this time? The reaction of Mr. Dao and the Chicago airport police not the airline.
Having on-call personnel is hardly unusual and does not significantly increase costs. Yes it is really easy to tell it was poor planning – they put the guy on the plane and then wanted to remove him.
Yes the overbooking system has been around a long time, I am not so sure it never happened before. Lot’s of poor practices are coming to light these days thanks to the proliferation of cameras. That said MOST companies will keep raising the compensation until they get enough volunteers. Like I posted earlier there were reports that someone volunteered if they would offer $1600 and United declined.
Btw, it also appears that United may actually have violated their own contract terms: https://www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2017/04/14/david-dao-versus-united-what-does-the-airline-contract-say/#7f14e67118ad
The media frenzy is on against United Airlines. Every bad customer experience will be highlighted whether it is true or not. This Segway story should not be published until a response is given by United. Maybe the crew did not have room in the cabin for a Segway and possibly it was too late to check it in?
This story about a honeymoon couple kicked off a United flight is full of holes as well. How could the guy be laying down in their seats if the plane is getting ready to take off and everyone has to be upright and seat belted?
From the FAA:
“A device with a lithium ion battery that exceeds 160 watt hours (Wh) is prohibited as carry-on or checked baggage.
Most board-type self-balancing scooters have a watt hour rating of about 158.4 Wh (36 volts x 4.4 Amp hours).
Most unicycle scooters and Segway-type scooters have a battery that exceeds 160 Wh, and thus are prohibited.”
The media hysteria around this is beyond belief. There is much talk about the stock tanking. It hasn’t tanked much more than the other major airlines. It’s higher than it was a month ago before the incident happened.
Dark Humor is like a little kid with cancer: It never gets old…
It’s almost as though United was run by the GOP (or Christians or taxpayers) the way the media sharknado is after them…
Who knows the truth at this point … but what I read was that he initially agreed to get off the plane, but then when he found out that there were no other flights to Louisville until the next afternoon, he said he changed his mind because he had patients to see the next day.
http://nypost.com/2017/04/11/doctor-dragged-off-flight-convicted-of-trading-drugs-for-sex/
I read in the NY Post (which is not particularly reputable) that his medical license was suspended in 2003 following his arrest for prescribing and trafficking in a controlled substance and trading drugs for gay sex. He agreed to surrender his medical license in 2005, but it was provisionally reinstated in 2015 so he could work one day a week for another doctor in Kentucky.
IF that story is true, it would be interesting to know if his one day of seeing patient was really the next day after that flight?
Yeah, I saw a video taken by a second passenger and he was on the phone with the airline trying to change his ticket. According to that account both he and his wife got up and left, then came back and he called the airline after that…while security stood there asking him to get off the flight. He then said, ‘no, I have patients…’ and so forth, then said he’d sue, he’d rather go to jail, and so forth.
And apparently (another source) a 300 dollar uber car could’ve driven him and his wife home in less than four hours.
We’ll probably never really know what happened because he has the public inertia and the airline is in CYA mode. They’re sure to settle out of court.
Someone wrote this message the day after on a blog. Of course, who knows…but the information is pretty specific here to just be fabricated.
“The guy purchased a STAND BY ticket for the flight with the understanding that he would gt a seat if some with a regular ticket didn’t check in for the flight. When they announced early boarding, he barged by the gate attendant and entered the aircraft without specific authorization and sat down in a random seat. When the legitimate passenger boarded and found her seat occupied, she reported it to the flight steward who checked tickets and discovered that the guy wasn’t even supposed to be on the aircraft. He refused to surrender the seat and leave the aircraft. At this point he was, at the very least, trespassing (and was very logically suspected of possibly be an “air pirate”). The more non-compliant the idiot became, the more validated suspicion of possible air piracy became. The only logical and the appropriate security and law enforcement decision that could be made was to remove the trespasser/pirate. It appears to me that the security officers used only the amount of force that was necessary to accomplish the necessary task.”
Since the media is in a frenzy they will not report accurately what happened because it would mean less clicks for them. I agree with Liz that United will probably settle this quietly out of court and this will just go away.
Oh…
You guys didn’t buy United stock when the media owners and associates did… just before they went on the coordinated anti-United campaign?
No?
Oh. That’s right. You are not part of the ruling elite which controls that corner of the world.
…so fuuck you, pizzants.
First, you Short the stock, then you buy it back and add it to your normal portfolio.
Winning on both ends.
MTB, you have what it takes to join the ruling media elite, sir.
We are trying to decide if Disney needs a terror scare or a pedophile scare soon.
What’s your professional opinion?
Why not both? Hire an Imam to show “inclusiveness,” have him both boink an 8-year-old, and “accidentially” leave a side gate open. A cover-up would be a nice touch.
Just like I thought, the media hype about the honeymoon couple kicked off of a United flight was BS:
Dude was all on the news complaining that the airline personnel were snickering at their misfortune. I had a feeling the guy was a bearded bastard.
Mandatory cameras in the passenger cabin I guess is where we’re heading…
It looks like United car give a sigh of relief now, the media has now moved on to attack American Airlines instead:
Just like the United video this could have all been avoided if people acted like adults and professionals. You have a passenger threatening to commit assault on an airline employee inside an aircraft and a hot headed flight attendant yelling back at him. Passengers should not be threatening to commit assault and an airline employee needs to know he has to keep his cool even when provoked.
As far as the stroller I am sure the employee did not intentionally hit the woman when removing the stroller. Additionally I doubt he hit her hard enough to where would be balling like she is. He should have obviously been more careful about removing the stroller which goes back to professionalism.
The mother has to know that a baby in a stroller cannot fly in an airplane. The only thing I can think of is that she had left something for the baby in the stroller and did not retrieve it before it was removed from the plane and the employee would not bring the stroller back. I can understand how that would make a mother traveling with two children upset.
It all boils down to decades of government regulations crapping up the airline industry in the name of safety that have resulted in such an off-putting environment. I doubt I’ll ever fly again for personal travel.
Elections have consequences…
Considering all the times I have flown on Korean Air and Asiana I have a hard time imagining their flight attendants getting into such a heated confrontation with a passenger like we saw in the American Airlines video.
As we saw on the Korean Air flight where Richard Marx had to come to the rescue the flight attendants took abuse from the drunken passenger and were spat upon and they still kept their cool probably much more than they should of.
In the American incident despite the woman crying for her stroller and a passenger threatening to assault him the flight attendant should have kept his cool and deescalated things.
We have the police report now. I was hoping United would release its report but maybe that isn’t going to happen.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/04/25/united-david-dao-police-report-dragging-incident/100873730/
Soldier is charged $200 by United Airlines for his overweight military duffel on his way home from 21 months serving in Afghanistan
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4517244/Soldier-claims-United-charged-200-military-duffel.html#ixzz4hR1exMnX
They do it all the time. I had to pay an extra $170 to bring my kevlar back in 2001. I took the receipts to Personnel, and was reimbursed by the Navy.
Not sure if this is a real problem, or reporters looking at another “Let’s slam on the Airlines” story.