The man who was dragged off a United Airlines flight suffered a broken nose and concussion and lost two front teeth, according to lawyers who are preparing a lawsuit against the Chicago carrier.
The passenger, Dr. David Dao, was discharged from a hospital Wednesday night but will still undergo reconstructive surgery to repair the injuries from being yanked from a plane that was due to fly from Chicago to Louisville, Ky., on Sunday night.
Dao's attorney Tom Demetrio blamed a "culture of disrespect and rudeness" at United, adding that Dao escaped Vietnam by boat in 1975. Sunday's experience "was more horrifying than leaving Vietnam," he said.
Dao's daughter said her father and her four siblings are shaken by the incident.
"What happened to my dad should not have happened to any human being under any circumstance," Crystal Dao Pepper said.
Worldwide furor was sparked by video and photos, captured on other passengers' cellphones, of airport police dragging a limp Dao off the crowded plane to make room for company personnel.
The outcry put pressure on United Airlines Chief Executive Oscar Munoz to apologize more than once. He appeared on television Wednesday after issuing statements on the incident Monday and Tuesday.
"Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight, and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard," Munoz said. "No one should ever be mistreated this way."
Demetrio filed a petition Wednesday for a court order to preserve evidence of the incident. A hearing on the request is scheduled for Monday morning.
The flight was fully booked, but United sought to clear out four seats to make room for four United employees who needed to be in Louisville the next day. After asking for volunteers and offering up to $800 and a hotel stay, United picked four passengers to be removed. Dao was among those picked, but he refused to leave.
Dao and his wife were returning from a vacation in California and had boarded the connecting flight to head home to Elizabethtown, Ky.
Demetrio described Dao as being respectful during the incident. "He was not a trouble passenger, not a nut job," the attorney said. "He just wanted to go home."
The attorney also said neither he nor Dao's family has received a direct apology from Munoz _ contradicting the airline chief, who said he reached out to the family to offer his apology.
Demetrio declined to discuss what kind of damages Dao might seek in a lawsuit, saying he doesn't know the extent of the physical, emotional or psychological damage. But, he said, the airline did not have the right to use "unnecessary force and violence" to remove a passenger who is not a threat.
"Common carriers have the highest duty of care to provide protection and safety to its fare-paying passengers," he said, adding that the Chicago airport police who dragged Dao from the plane share in responsibility for the incident.
The lawyer also spoke out against airlines that overbook flights, as well as a culture of disrespect and bullying. Dao is going to "stand up for passengers going forward," he said.
Dao's daughter said she and her four siblings were "completely horrified and shocked" by the video.
