By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
Chicago personal injury attorney Thomas Demetrio says he will “probably” file a lawsuit against United Airlines after last Sunday’s incident in which a 69-year old man was forcibly dragged off a crowded United flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.
Demetrio says his client, Dr. David Dao of Kentucky, told him the incident was more horrifying to him than when he fled Vietnam by boat in 1975 during the fall of Saigon.
Demetrio also says Dao he suffered a concussion and broken nose and lost two front teeth. He says Dao has been discharged from a hospital but will need reconstructive surgery.
Dao was forcibly removed from the plane Sunday after he refused to give up his seat on the full flight from Chicago to Louisville. City of Chicago Aviation police were the ones that removed Dao, and Demetrio says because of that fact the City of Chicago will also be a defendant in the lawsuit he is going to file.
Dao’s lawyers already have taken steps toward filing a lawsuit. On Wednesday they filed an emergency motion in Cook County Circuit Court asking a judge to ensure the airline and city preserve surveillance video showing passengers boarding Flight 3411 to Louisville. They’re also seeking cockpit voice recordings, incident reports and other materials. Video of the Kentucky physician being pulled from his seat after he refused to leave the full plane has been viewed by people around the world.
His daughter Crystal Pepper of Barrington, also appeared at a downtown Chicago news conference with Demetrio and said the family was “horrified, shocked and sickened” to learn and see what happened. Pepper says seeing her father removed from the Sunday flight was “exacerbated” by the fact it was caught on video and widely distributed.
Demetrio says airlines have “bullied” passengers “for a long time,” and he referred to the Aviation police as “storm troopers.”
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz has said he was “ashamed” when he saw the video and that the airline is reviewing its policies. Munoz says law enforcement won’t be involved in removing passengers in the future.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
