United Airlines agents worked the flight as they do for all UAL and UX flights at ORD. But, that really doesn't matter because the UAL policies at the time were no different than any other US airline's procedures. This could have happened on any of them and it would have been handled very similarly.

They were not contract security. They were employed by the local government as law enforcement. They were trained by the Chicago Police Department. When Chicago PD received a call at O'Hare, these are the people that they sent to handle it. At the time, none of the tenants at the airport knew they were anything other than Chicago Airport Police.

20/20 hindsight tells us that the best way to have handled the situation would have been to deplane everyone and deal with it at the gate. You might still have ended up with a standoff but removing the audience would have taken away some of his steam.

Bottom line is, then or today, when he refused to exit the airplane when directed, any chance of him flying on that flight was gone. An airline is not going to transport a passenger who won't follow instructions.

 

Sure you care; if you’re on the 6am flight the next day. It isn’t just about YOU. This is typical of society today and the law of unintended consequences. You don’t care about what happens to a full plane tomorrow as long as you get on YOUR flight tonight. But I guarantee that if you were on the flight in the morning that got cancelled, you’d be furious that the company “couldn’t get it’s crap together” the night before.

It’s the airline business. Things break. Weather happens. It’s a complicated game. But offering more money to give up your seat is only one aspect of the Dao “solution”. Crews will no longer be booked on a flight that’s full if within 60 minutes of departure, period. So in the future, thanks to one guy not wanting to get off the airplane and ****ing off an airport cop, there WILL be downline cancellations. And that flight might be yours. Sorry, but that’s what society demanded. *shrugs*

 

Explain how a different outcome would have occured if it was on United metal?

 

I think you may be missing the point I’m trying to make which is just that everyone wants to simplify this into a one-point narrative (i.e., either it’s ALL the cops’ fault, or ALL UAL’s fault, or ALL his own fault, etc.) but really it’s the combination of a bunch of poor decisions- some of which in retrospect seem worse than they do when taken in context. Yes airline policies and employees can be held to account for the way they handled the situation, (bad customer service decisions) but only to a degree- it isn’t reasonable to expect them to have foreseen this outcome and/or accuse them of violence. Similarly, claims that Dao himself “deserved it” or was “asking for it” are also unfair, although he was given many chances to behave like an adult that would have prevented him from getting hurt. He didn’t ask to be put in this situation but once he was, his childish behavior and poor decisions played a major role in him getting injured.

To answer your question, I don’t think it necessarily would have happened differently on a United airplane- or Delta or American for that matter- which kind of makes my point. If it didn’t happen on a United plane, why is United getting blamed for it? Because they sold him the ticket & contracted with the airline whose plane this DID happen on. Now, if you still want to blame United (as many in the public do) you have to understand the structure of those contracts, where they come from, and whether they are ethical- but most in the public have lost interest by this point. They don’t want to understand, they want to judge, and most people had done that by the time they saw the picture and read the headline. Once the news outlets sold the story as “United Oversells Flight, Kicks Crap out of Passenger” the tide of public outrage was set in place and trying to gain a deeper understanding once the facts become clearer is a lot less rewarding for most people than moving on to the next group outrage snap judgement.

The public has moved on from this guy and if he thinks he can go round 2 on a sympathy tour as a millionaire and a convicted sexual predator in the “Me Too” era, I wish him luck...

 

They were not sworn police officers and had no legal authority to arrest or use force except in their own defense.

Anybody suggesting that compliance with authority figures is the only way to keep from getting beat within an inch of your life are so far removed from the reality of being a human that it's just sad.

Dr. Dao is a fellow human being and didn't deserve what he got. All of the bad publicity, loss of public goodwill and huge cash settlement is because of United Airlines was totally negligent in their handling of him.

Who cares that he argued? Who cares that he was a drug addict? Who cares if he didn't comply?

None of those things warrant a complete negation of his rights and him being beat, almost to death.

What Nazi, police state are some of you guys wanting to live in? JFC, get some perspective on your white entitlement.

 

"White Entitlement?!" Now, that's rich.

 

It’s the new “fall back” argument.

 

WOW?!.....

 

You say he’s a fellow human being. He sure as hell didn’t act like one. You can’t attack those criticizing him and in the same breath say he was a saint. It took multiple parties to tango.


GP

 

If you think anyone “beat” this guy, watch the tape. They calmly explain to him that they are there to remove him from the plane and they would prefer not to do so forcibly. He basically tells them that physical force is the only way he’s getting off the plane, then clings to the seat so tightly that when they pry him loose, he flies across the aisle and hits his face on the opposite armrest. Of course, being childish & belligerent doesn’t mean you deserve to get hurt, but it certainly increases the likelihood that it will happen. If you think this guy played no part in what happened that’s fine. If you disagree with the use of force; fine. But don’t disingenuously claim that anyone “beat him within inches of his life.” He was accidentally injured when police resorted to force in removing him from an airplane.