Man dragged from flight plans to sue United, his lawyer says

CHICAGO — United Airlines and the city of Chicago will find themselves the target of lawsuits by the man who was dragged off a plane in Chicago last week after refusing to give up his seat.

One of Dr. David Dao’s lawyers, Thomas Demetrio, said as much Thursday during a news conference in which he suggested that Dao could be “a poster child” for the mistreatment of passengers by the airline industry.

“It took something like this to get a conversation going,” Demetrio said.

Dao was forcibly removed from a fullybooked United Express flight out of O’Hare International Airport on Sunday to make room for crew members.

Demetrio said the 69-year-old Kentucky physician and father of five lost two teeth and suffered a concussion and broken nose.

He also indicated Dao will be suing the airline and the city of Chicago, which employs the airport police who dragged Dao down the aisle, his face bloody.

Demetrio said the video showed an exthe traordinary instance of something that happens too routinely: Airlines overbooking flights then bumping paying customers.

It also exposed a corporate culture in which airlines — and United in particular — have long “bullied” passengers, he said.

“I hope he becomes a poster child for all of us,” he said. “Someone’s got to.”

Dao was released from a local hospital late Wednesday and will need reconstructive surgery, Demetrio said.

He said his client was in a “secure location,” because he has been hounded by media, but he would speak at a future date.

The union for the airline’s pilots issued a statement Thursday seeking to distance them from the incident, pointing out that it happened on a United Express carrier that is “separately owned and operated by Republic Airline” and that United pilots weren’t flying the jet.

It also said United pilots are “infuriated” by what happened and blamed the incident on

“grossly inappropriate” actions of the security officers.

The three officers who removed Dao have been suspended from their jobs at the Chicago Aviation Department.

For Dao, who came to the U.S. after fleeing Vietnam by boat in 1975 when Saigon fell, being dragged off the plane “was more horrifying and harrowing than what he experienced in leaving Vietnam,” Demetrio said.