The story that has captured the internet’s attention and initially dropped the value of a major airline’s stock by $255 million keeps on going.
The videos showing Dr. David Dao being forcibly pulled off his flight so that United Airlines employees could have his seat has become a PR nightmare for the company.
New footage (below) has emerged showing what happened in the moments prior to Dao’s abrupt de-planing:
Update: New video below provides subtitles…
In the clip, Dao is seen telling the officers, “I am a physician and I have to work tommorrow.” The officers insist that he has to de-board, but Dao tells them he is not going. “You can threaten, I will not go,” he says adding, “I stay right there.”
“This is going to be a lot harder if you refuse,” says the officer. Dao pipes back, “I’d rather go to jail” than get off the plane.
The video’s description reads:
[An] argument between a United passenger and Chicago O’Hare Airport security guards moments before he was dragged from the plane on Sunday. Joya Griffin Cummings captured this video of the passenger, who has since been identified as Doctor David Dao of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, talking with the guards. Dao was also apparently in a telephone conversation with his lawyer and discussed suing United before the incident.
In a second clip Griffin Cummings recorded after Dao reboarded the plane he can be heard to say “I want to go home” repeatedly.
Dao was dragged from his seat and off the plane after the airline demanded four passengers be removed from the fully booked Louisville-bound flight to make space for four United employees. Videos shared on social media showed blood streaming from Dao’s face as he was dragged away and later when he reboarded the plane.
United Chief Executive Oscar Munoz’s initial statement described the passenger’s behavior as “disruptive and belligerent” but in a new statement issued on April 11 he apologzied and promised “we will work to make it right.”
Dao was taken to a Chicago hospital for treatment. One of the aviation security officers involved in the incident has been placed on leave, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
United Airlines tweeted their response to the situation, which only made their PR situation worse:
Click below for the footage of him being dragged off – the footage that started it all, including the moment where Dao somehow made it back on the plane, bloodied, and saying “I have to go home”: