Although it should come as no surprise, two of the Chicago Aviation Police Officers who dragged Dr. David Dao off UA3411 tell a very different story of what happened.
Obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press, the reports of Officer James Long and Mauricio Rodriguez Jr. assert that:
- One officer boarded initially and two officers were eventually called in for backup
- After calmly reasoning with him for several minutes, Dao was forcibly removed by three officers
- Officer Long was tasked with removing Dao from his seat
- Dao resisted his removal from the start, “flailing and fighting” as he was lifted out of his window seat
- Dao knocked Long’s hands off his arms, causing Dao to fall against the adjacent airline seat and bloody himself
- Only after refusing to stand up, Dao was dragged off the plane
- On the jetbridge while still on the ground, Dao claimed to be diabetic
- EMS were called
- When the grip on Dao was loosened, he ran back on the aircraft warning officers would have to “kill him”
- Dao was again removed, treated by EMS, and transported to Lutheran General Hospital
Long asserts that he provided his statement under “duress”, fearing he would lose his job if he did not. You can read Rodriguez’s report and Long’s statement below.
UA3411 Incident Report from Officer Mauricio Rodriguez Jr and Statement from Officer James Long
David Dao UA3411 Hospital Report
A hospital report was also included in the FOIA package:
Analysis of UA3411 Police Report
The officer’s account helps to explain why United CEO Oscar Munoz initially labeled Dr. Dao a “belligerent” passenger. Clearly, Dao was “belligerent”. Further, Dao made the situation much harder on himself by resisting his inevitable ejection.
But I don’t think that is the point. The point is still why — why were the passengers boarded first when four additional seats were needed? Why was violence necessary over a revenue dispute? However culpable you deem Dao for what happened, no one deserves to be dragged off a plane over an oversell problem.
One last piece of the FOIA request included the Chicago Aviation Police Department’s policy going forward. A memo to officers reveals a revised policy for using force:
It says aviation security personnel should use force only when “reasonably necessary to defend a human life, effect an arrest or control a person,” and that the force used “shall only be that which is necessary to overcome the resistance being offered by an offender and to effect lawful objectives.”
Under that guidance, Dao still could have been dragged off.
CONCLUSION
We’ll see if this news changes sentiment toward Dr. Dao. Based on the videos, I don’t believe Dao was deliberately slammed into a seat. I also believe that officers were not looking to become violent. But does it really matter? Dao has already won in the court of public opinion. United has already apologized and deflected any blame of Dao and the fact remains violence is no answer to these sorts of disputes.
What do you make of the latest police and hospital report?
More Coverage of the UA3411 Incident
Doctor Dragged Off Oversold United Flight
United CEO Addresses Bloodied Passenger Incident
I’ll Defend Oscar’s Note to United Employees on Flight 3411
Royal Jordanian Trolls United Airlines
Is Oscar Munoz in Danger of Losing His Job?
Details Emerge on Identity of Doctor Dragged Off United Flight
What United CEO Left Out of Apology
Emirates Shames United With Powerful Ad
Must See: United CEO on Good Morning America
One New Video, Two Competing Narratives – Passenger Interaction with Police Prior to Ejection from United Flight
Why Didn’t Anyone Help the Bloody Passenger?
Lawyers Stage Elaborate Press Conference to Pummel United Airlines
Is Oscar Munoz a Liar?
United Airlines Board of Directors Addresses Controversy
United CEO Apology Tour at Asian Consulates
“Clearly, Dao was “belligerent”. ” Really? You’re basing this on a police report where it’s customary for officers to manipulate the events. I’ll base my opinions on the multitude of videos, thanks.
The video where Dao actually says “Drag me off the plane, I don’t care”, before resisting and flailing himself into a seat?
I’ll tell you what I make off it.
Dr David Dao is a f***in human being, a passenger, a person who paid for a service, a man who was returning home and to work.
He was treated like a convicted military prisoner, a less than human object and was subjected to violence, even extreme violence you might say.
The United States of America is an aggressive, way way way over-legal society that forgets so much what is important in life. This would happen almost nowhere else on the planet.
Who gives a friggin damn about legal mumbo jumbo terms of carriage, blah blah …. any… and I mean ANY reaction other than disgust proves you are American to the core.
And that is not a compliment. Truly a disgrace of a society. And yes, the choice of president is a symptom and a factor in this kind of behavior.
Good luck with Trump.. I’m done.
If Dr. Dao was belligerent it was because he was being treated unfairly (and probably illegally). That’s exactly when you are supposed to be belligerent. If he simply stood up an walked off the plane when the police showed up then we would have never heard about this and United would be encouraged to keep treating their passengers like criminals whenever it suited their needs. Thank you Dr. Dao.
“no one deserves to be dragged off a plane over an oversell problem.”
The police don’t seem to indicate they know why Mr. Dao was asked to leave, they just know he was asked to leave. Their reaction isn’t based on needing a few seats for crew, it’s based on an individual remaining on an aircraft he was asked to leave.
United didn’t drag Mr. Dao off the plane, the police did, but United did create the scenario where he was asked to leave involuntarily. Mr. Dao created the scenario where police would be needed to physically remove him and the police did their job by removing a passenger who refused to exit an aircraft.
If we are placing blame, the lead domino is United, then a seemingly psychotic Mr. Dao, then the police, in that order. Who shouts “just kill me” at the back of a plane after being physically removed? Nut jobs, that’s who.
I would assume that police should be cognizant of why they’re removing someone.
Who shouts “just kill me” at the back of a plane after being physically removed you ask? Someone who’s just been physically ASSAULTED & CONCUSSED by law authorities despite doing nothing illegal.
Lets see how coherent you are after you’ve had your brains scrambled by the people you assumed were to be there to protect you.
It’s possible for both sides to be wrong and both to be guilty of completely reprehensible behavior. Some people struggle with that.
Well I guess many will blame Trump but what reasonable person would refuse to exit an aircraft if asked to do so by law enforcement?
I’ve seen video of other potentially violent incidents, whereby passengers who were causing a disturbance have been handcuffed and safely removed from flights. The police report somehow doesn’t pass the smell test, in clarifying how the Doctor broke his nose, and lost several teeth. The two security personnel (technically, they were not cops) were big, burly guys. Even the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, back in 2001, who tried to blow up an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic, and who was restrained by 8-10 passengers, did not have his nose broken, or his teeth knocked out. I remember another incident,which also goes to show how brutal airline security personnel can be. About five years ago, there was a Jet Blue flight from Newark to Phoenix. There was a young African-American child who was kicking the seating of an older White gentleman, seated in front of him. When the man objected, the Mother of the child started yelling at the man, and they became involved in a heated altercation. A senior citizen female, who was from Arizona, filmed the entire episode with her smartphone. When the flight attendants became aware of her tape, they demanded that she surrender the tape to them. She refused, rightly stating that the film belonged to her, and that she was not giving it to Jet Blue, as she had a legal right to film the incident. However, when the plane landed in Phoenix, Jet Blue called the local cops. The female passenger with the Smartphone was was arrested. She was taken off the plane, handcuffed, and while in the airport, she stated that a Phoenix cop shoved her down a flight of stairs. Eventually, the charges against her were dropped. This was but another case of flight attendants abusing their authority, and having passengers illegally arrested!
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Flight attendants have carte blanche power and that probably isn’t a good thing. We need some checks and balances.
One might be civil liability for airline crews for intentional wrongdoing. This could include civil rights violations but that is iffy. I would be more inclined to create a cause of action against the airline when crews make false statements to federal officers (which is already a felony but one that is never prosecuted in this type of situation). Flight attendants should think twice before lying to police and getting people arrested. They are human, they get angry then they say what they know will make them look best even when video shows it is not what happened. Imagine if they had potential liability for lying. One flight attendant might still lie but I doubt all of the others would back him/her up at the risk of potential civil liability.
Correction: This wasn’t an oversell; it was an involuntary bump for crew re-positioning.
It’s insane how many people have just decided the facts or developed their opinion based on one point of view or another. There’s a lot that went wrong.
1) United shouldn’t use police for customer service issues. 2) Dao shouldn’t refuse lawful orders from a police officer regardless of whether he’s right or wrong; objectively or subjectively. 3) I would hope police could have removed in a more gentler manner or figured out a way to pull him out without it needing to be so aggressive but I wasn’t on the ground there regardless of the video evidence. It was a perfect storm.
The outrage here continues to be fueled by bloggers and commenters both virtue signaling instead of having a balanced review of the situation. It’s also such a relatable issue that it taints everyone’s opinion of the facts. Anyone could easily put themselves in his shoes and thus feel outrage. (I do wonder, would everyone step to a cop though?)
People are labeling this situation as some sort of mark on humanity, an issue of civil rights, the corporate power structure and on and on. Seriously, the airlines do need to get their customer service hats back on and a major way – culture needs to shift. But this isn’t some grandiose issue like racism or prejudice. It isn’t a protest march or a Syria bombing but it’s getting more attention than all of that stuff.
What a mess. Can we move on?
It was an oversell — more seats confirmed than available seats. Doesn’t matter what you or United wants to call it.
Seems like that verbiage is very important. Doesn’t an oversell situation allow the actions outlined in section 25 in the CoC? And therefore if United explicitly states it wasn’t an oversell….
I have no idea what United was thinking, but I do agree that they have claimed it was not an oversell.
It doesn’t change my opinion of what happened. Whenever I’ve seen a video of a passenger dragged off the plane in the past, other passengers would applaud the police officers for getting the belligerent/crazy/#*$@&#@ passenger off the plane. In this case, the sentiment of the other passengers were clearly different. I’d say the majority if not all of the other passengers were on Dr. Dao’s side and to me, that’s indicative that it’s United’s fault for overbooking the plane.
Great point.
The only people that should have been removed by force in this incident are Oscar Munoz and the United Management team that created this criminal corporate culture.
I’d like to make everyone aware of an incident which occurred, on a United flight, in 2002. My wife and I were on a United flight, from Honolulu to San Francisco. The flight attendants on that flight appeared to be brand new employees. They were very young, and extremely courteous. In fact, I was surprised, as I had gotten used to the rude ones, and had forgotten how nice the FA’s used to be. In any event, when the plane landed in San Francisco, we had to change for another United flight to Chicago. There, a new crew came on; those FA’s were older, and had the same chip on their shoulder attitude, which has become all too common, in the industry. In any event, we were continuing to Columbus, Ohio, on the same aircraft after a brief stop at O’Hare. When the plane landed, an announcement came over the loud speaker inviting everyone to deplane. However, I already had a boarding pass (as did my wife), authorizing us to continue to Columbus, Ohio. Since we were not legally required to deplane, we decided to stay in our seats. There was no way that we were going to get off that aircraft; at that time, there were secondary security checks, and we didn’t wish to be randomly frisked. After 9/11/01, and continuing for over a year, the TSA would screen people at random a second time, before boarding the aircraft, even after they went through security the first time. The latter policy was ludicrous, and thankfully, it was discontinued. At O’Hare, a United flight attendant (I remember that she had a British accent) saw us seated at the back. I saw her talking to the Captain, and then, she charged down the aisle in our direction. I immediately whipped out our boarding passes, and showed her that in fact, we were ticketed to Columbus, Ohio. The sight of the boarding passes, stopped her dead in her tracks, and she immediately returned to the front. In retrospect, that was one win for the good guys. The airlines are going to have to learn, that they are not going to harass, intimidate, or push around law abiding passengers. Case closed!
I don’t understand why you are recalling this incident all the way from 2002 when it has no substance. Other than the claim that the flight attendant “charged” down the aisle (a very subjective conclusion), what did she do wrong? You stayed on the plane; she had to ensure passengers had onward tickets; you pulled yours out; she went back to work. Seems like what happened is exactly what should have happened.
I’d like to enlighten the readers to this blog of another incident which just occurred this past weekend on American Airlines; unfortunately, it did not receive that much media coverage. However, the incident can be googled, online. A couple traveled from Columbus, OH to Chicago, to get away for the weekend. On the way back, on American Airlines, they were chatting; the female is a pharmacy student, and she was in the process of talking her licensing examination, to become a licensed pharmacist in Ohio. I don’t know the profession of her male companion. When the plane landed at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, an announcement was made that everyone should stay in their seats. All of a sudden, two airport police officers came on board the plane, and surrounded that couple. The cops had been summoned by the airline. The couple were removed from the plane, and during their removal, everyone was giving them weird looks. By the way, you are all probably wondering what crime they had committed. Their crime was that they were flying while speaking Arabic; they were dressed in Western clothing. The other “crime” was that the male companion was about 40 years older than his female companion, who was in her mid 20’s. Hence, right away, the idiotic airline personnel became suspicious, and accused him of “human trafficking, and domestic abuse”. After they were both questioned separately for 20 minutes, the cops saw that their “crime” was unfounded, and let them both go. Both of them have never received an apology from American Airlines, They should both sue American Airlines for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and illegal detention. Incidentally, this is not the first time that something of this nature has occurred. A similar incident happened about a year ago, when two men were speaking in Arabic, and there was an Arab woman seated nearby. She had nothing to do with the men. Nevertheless, all three were arrested, and she was strip searched! Again, thee was no crime, and they were let go, after being humiliated, and detained. Last, there was another incident not that long ago, where a Jewish boy from Louisville, KY, was praying in Hebrew on board an aircraft. Again, some suspicious passengers reported him, and he was hauled off the plane, and questioned extensively by the FBI. Alas, this is what commercial flying has become, today.
Do you ever wonder why these kinds of incidents are never spoken about for example in Russia?
USA is a democracy, where people and the press have rights and freedom, but in countries like Russia, the GOV is king.
Meaning that no one questions police brutality, the GOV controlled press does not publish these kinds of things, unless it serves the greater good for the GOV and this united airlines is highly talked about in GOV controlled media.
For all you tinfoil hat people there, you don’t know the meaning of GOV control, unless you have lived under it and trust me, you haven’t.
Save it for the jury.
Airport Security Officer’s (ASO) don’t even have jurisdiction to be on board the aircraft (see the testimony of Chicago Aviation Department Chief of Police on youtube.com a few days following the event) so everything the ASOs did was 100% completely illegal.
Who does have jurisdiction?
In response to the ponderings:
The passengers were on board before it was determined that the crew needed to ride. So it wasn’t an oversell problem, it was a maintenance problem on another aircraft and the crew needed to get to work to avoid stranding other passengers.
Violence is hardly the term for trying to lift or pull someone out of their seat. It’s physical force yes, but violence is related to striking and it was an accident that David hit his face on the armrest.
A more important thing to realize is this: before any aviation police arrived, David Dao, when asked to depart the aircraft began yelling at the agent and became aggressive. That level of response alone, even if the aircraft were nearly empty, was grounds for removal from the flight.
How long have aircraft been the favorite tool of terrorists for hijacking? That alone should be reason enough to expect everyone to be on their best behavior. Any aggression towards crew or staff is immediate grounds for removal.
But more than that, crews are often briefed at the beginning of the flight that if a passenger exhibits signs that they are aggressive or won’t follow the directions of the crew, then that passenger will be removed. It’s a standard briefing item.
Belligerent passengers with mental instability are a very real threat to themselves, crew, other passengers, and the safety of the flight. Flights land short of the destination all the time to deplane a quarrelsome unstable person. Crew aren’t going to put the lives of the other passengers at risk. That’s their job. Many crews would not have pushed back from the gate after David Dao had spoken to the agent the way he did because he would be deemed a risk to the safe conduct of the flight.
Who would want to be in an aircraft traveling 500 mph, in the upper atmosphere where death from asphyxiation can occur in minutes, with thousands of pounds of highly flammable fuel and hundreds of parts in jet engines spinning at high speed, with an aggressive unstable person? The level of danger flying a jet aircraft is staggering and is only safe because the threats are addressed. When airborne, we’re all captive in that tube and have to live with whoever else is there for at least 30 minutes after things start to go bad.
Having said that, how about a reality check? Do you think David Dao is the first person to be dragged from an aircraft or will be the last? There are some very strange and unstable people out there who do weird things. Not everybody riding an aircraft is like Wolfe Blitzer.
The level of drum beating, tribal hysteria and lack of critical thinking in this story are astounding. I’ve seen children with better ability to assess a situation. A wildly screaming man with blood on his face makes a great YouTube video but it doesn’t have the information in it to determine who should be blamed or how we should react.