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.
It looks like another idiot had too much to drink on a flight bound for South Korea:
A non-Korean man was turned over to the police and faces criminal prosecution in the U.S. after sexually harassing a stewardess on Korean Air. / Korea Times file
A non-Korean man was turned over to the police and faces criminal prosecution in the U.S. after sexually harassing a stewardess on Korean Air flight KE036, according to the airline Thursday.
The man in his 50s, whose identity remains unknown, allegedly sexually harassed the stewardess on the flight from Atlanta to Incheon on Tuesday.
The man, who was wearing a wet shirt at the time of the incident, asked the stewardess if she wanted him to take off his shirt when asked if he needed a towel.
He also allegedly demanded that the stewardess sit next to him, drink wine with him and give him a massage so he could sleep better.
When the stewardess warned the man, he allegedly started to make threats, saying the airline should fire her. [Korea Times]
It seems this guy should face far more serious punishment than what Cho Hyun-ah faced in the Nut Rage Incident:
Lim Bum-jun
Police on Tuesday requested an arrest warrant for the man who drunkenly attacked passengers and crew members on a Korean Air flight from Hanoi to Seoul for violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act.
The man, a 34-year-old named Lim Bum-jun, was seated in prestige class (business class) on Dec. 20 when he struck another passenger in the face and attacked cabin crew who tried to restrain him. He was subdued only after the crew and others, including American pop singer Richard Marx, tied him to a seat.
“Police requested an arrest warrant for Lim for wreaking havoc on the plane and violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act,” said a police officer. “This is a graver charge than a mere disciplinary action for violence on a plane.”
The charge is the same that former Vice President of Korean Air Cho Hyun-ah received in 2014, over the infamous “nut rage” tantrum. She was sentenced to one year in prison in her first trial, but in her appeal was sentenced to 10 months with two years of probation. Suspects charged with violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act can be sentenced to up to five years in prison. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but Korean Air confirms this is the second time Lim made trouble on a flight and have thus banned him for life from flying on the airline.
Richard Marx and Daisy Fuentes to the rescue? Via a reader tip, that is what happened on a recent Korean Air flight:
Richard Marx heroically fought off and restrained an out-of-control passenger during a flight from Vietnam to South Korea … and his wife, Daisy Fuentes, captured the whole ordeal.
Daisy took a bunch of pics as Korean Air flight attendants and the ’80s hitmaker teamed up to take down the man. You can see Richard was throwing elbows and even holding the rope tied around the guy.
According to Daisy and Richard … the flight crew was “completely ill trained” for combat. One of the flight attendants had a taser, but had no clue how to use it … at least that’s how Daisy saw it.
She says they battled the attacker for 4 hours, and 2 passengers and a crew member were injured. Seoul police arrested the guy when they landed. [TMZ]
You can read more at the link, but here is video of the altercation:
I would have to think this guy is either extremely drunk on drugs judging by his behavior which is absolutely ridiculous. I have to give credit to the passenger who was helping to restrain him and kept getting spit in the face. I think many people would have hit the guy in the face after getting spat on repeatedly like that passenger was.
Firefighters put out a fire on a Korean Air plane on the runway of Haneda Airport in Tokyo on May 27, 2016, in this photo released by Kyodo News. The left wing of the plane bound for Seoul caught fire before takeoff, but all 319 passengers and crew were safely evacuated, according to the Japanese news agency. (Yonhap)
Imagine how much money Soldiers could make if they could sue superiors who yell at them for stupid stuff? That is basically what is going on with this lawsuit against former Korean Air executive Heather Cho:
A New York court has dismissed a suit filed by “nut rage” incident victim Park Chang-jin against former Korean Air heiress and Executive Vice President Heather Cho (Korean name – Cho Hyun-ah), sources said Friday.
Previously, the same court dismissed a case brought by Kim Do-hee, a junior flight attendant over the incident.
Claiming that he suffered from a severe physical and mental breakdown after the incident, Park filed a suit with the Queens County Supreme Court in New York against Cho in July.
The written decision for the dismissal was not disclosed but experts said it was likely to follow the precedent of Kim who also sued Cho on the same charges last March.
In Kim’s case, Robert L. Nahman, a judge in charge on the U.S. Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Queens, reportedly said upon the dismissal last month that it would be better if a Korean court dealt with the case because the plaintiff, the defendants and witnesses reside in Korea and all evidence is in Korea as well.
A series of the dismissals from the U.S court seemed to reflect Cho’s repeated requests insisting the New York court dismiss the suit so that she can stand trial in Korea.
Cho offered some 100 million won ($82,433) to Park and Kim through a Korean court to settle the case during her trial last year. But neither took the money and filed separate lawsuits in the U.S. instead. [Korea Times]
Just when you thought this story had gone away it is back:
Cho Hyun-ah, the South Korean airline executive accused of assaulting cabin crew for serving macadamia nuts in a plastic bag, must wait until September to find out whether a lawsuit filed against her in New York is to be dismissed.
Kim Do-hee, the flight attendant on Korean Air who served Cho the nuts last December, filed a lawsuit at a Queens county court in March, South Korean outlet Newsis reported.
Kim’s lawsuit claims Cho “poured insults and assaulted [Kim] in the cabin,” and that not only was she “traumatized” by the experience but also “suffered damage to her career and reputation,” Yonhap reported.
Cho’s legal advisers requested the case be transferred to South Korea on July 13, on the premise the parties involved were South Korean nationals and all material in the investigation is written in Korean. [UPI]
You can read the rest at the link, but at this point this all just looks like a money grab against Cho. If this flight attended was traumatized by criticism about how to serve macadamia nuts then I would not want this flight attendant every working on an aircraft ever again anyway. If “nut rage” was so traumatizing how would this person react during an inflight emergency?
I would be very surprised if the appeals court ruling acquitting Cho is overturned because really is what she did worthy of going to jail for a whole year?:
South Korean prosecutors on Thursday appealed a court decision that acquitted the eldest daughter of Korean Air’s chairman of disrupting a flight in a rage over macadamia nuts.
Cho Hyun-Ah, who had been in jail since her arrest in December, walked free last week after an appeals court overturned her conviction for violating aviation safety laws.
The prosecutor’s office in Seoul announced that it had submitted an appeal with the Supreme Court to reverse the verdict. [AFP]
It was only a matter of time before Heather Cho would be acquitted. She was publicly shamed and the media attention has long since moved along so the time was right to let her walk:
A Seoul appeals court Friday acquitted a former Korean Air Lines vice president of charges of changing the route of a flight in the so-called “nut rage” case.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Cho Hyun-ah to 10 months in prison, but suspended the prison term for two years, freeing her several months after she was put behind bars in December.
A lower court delivered a one-year sentence in December, convicting her of the flight route change to endanger flight safety as she forced the chief steward off a taxiing flight because she was served nuts in an unopened bag instead of on a plate. [Yonhap]
