David Dao settles with United Airlines

David Dao was severely injured when he was violently removed from an United Airlines flight.

IN A BRIEF STATEMENT, United Airlines settled with David Dao, whose forced ouster from a United flight created a public relations nightmare.
The press relaese said: "We are pleased to report that United and Dr. Dao have reached an amicable resolution of the unfortunate incident that occurred aboard flight 3411. We look forward to implementing the improvements we have announced, which will put our customers at the center of everything we do."  

As part of the settlement, the final sum was undisclosed.

Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese/American doctor, had to be hospitalized for injuries incurred when Chicago aviation police dragged him from the plane to make space for four crew members on the flight from the city's O'Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky.

RELATED: Passenger violently dragged off of plane

Dao's legal team released it's own statement regarding the settlement and their dealings with United CEO Oscar Munoz, who took the brunt of the outrage generated by the incident.

"Mr. Munoz said he was going to do the right thing, and he has," said Thomas Demetrio, one of Dao's attorneys. "In addition, United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago. For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded."

The settlement was reached on the same day United Airlines announced multiple positive changes to improve the customer experience. According to Demetrio, 

"Dr. Dao has become the unintended champion for the adoption of changes which will certainly help improve the lives of literally millions of travelers.’ 

Among the changes, United will no longer remove passengers after they've been seated and the airline has raised the amount of compensation for passengers who volunteer to give up their seats to $10,000.

"I sincerely hope that all other airlines make similar changes and follow United’s lead in helping to improve the passenger flying experience with an emphasis on empathy, patience, respect and dignity," said Demetrio.

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Chinese/American man dragged from plane is identified; United scrambles to rectify PR nightmare

TWITTER / INSTAGRAM

David Dao

THE MAN who was violently dragged off a United flight Sunday has been identified as David Dao of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. He is reportedly recovering from the physical and emotional wounds in a Chicago hospital.

He, indeed, was a doctor, a claim he made when United employees initially tried to remove him from Flight 3411 in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Dao refused to leave his seat because he said he had patients to see the next day.

When he was adamant  and continued to refuse to give up his seat, United employees called on airport security to remove him. His violent removal was captured on other passengers' smart phones showed Dao getting a bloodied lip and being dragged down the aisle. Other passengers could be heard expressing their horror over his treatment.

RELATED: Video of man dragged off of flight

Dao’s wife, Dr. Teresa Dao, has a medical practice in Elizabethtown. She was seen in the videos following the guards when her husband was ousted. Office staff at her clinic told the Courier-Journal Tuesday that neither Dao nor his wife wished to speak with its reporter regarding the incident.

Dao told WLKY in a story Tuesday that he is recovering in a Chicago hospital after he collapsed on the plane and carried off in a stretcher. When asked what his injuries are, he said “everything" and that he was not doing well.

United has come under scathing criticism since the incident. Twitter users are calling for a boycott and Chinese social networkers joined in the boycott drive. China is United's biggest growth area. The videos of the incident went viral on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter, and got over 100 million views. China's media focused on Dao's claim that he was being singled out because he was Chinese, which he shouted out before being dragged down the aisle.

After being criticised for Monday's glib apology in the wake of the incident, United chief executive Oscar Munoz made another attempt at an apology.

“The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened,” he said. “Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologise to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way."

Earlier Tuesday, United's stock was off about 4 percent, or close to $1 billion off the company's market value. That apparently was the reason for a more "compassionate" apology issued later in the afternoon. After the mea culpa from the CEO, the stock had recovered from the worst losses -- but its market value was still off by $250 million.

Munoz used Twitter to issue this revised apology:

Dao, who went to medical school in Vietnam in the 1970s before moving to the U.S., had a troubled past, causing him to lose his medical license. He 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.

He lost his license and was working to regain it when the United incident occurred.

Dao's past, however troubled it may seem, shouldn't be relevant to how he was treated on United's Flight 3411.

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