Some airlines oversell flights to compensate for passengers who do not turn up on the day.
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“Currently, (Dao and his family) are focused only on Dao’s medical care and treatment”, Chicago-based lawyer Stephen Golan said in a statement.
Asked if Dao can be blamed for doing anything wrong, Munoz replied: “No”.
The pleading was filed in Cook County Circuit Court, in Chicago. Next, as seen in footage that went viral, Dao was violently dragged from the plane, injured and bloodied by security personnel while the other passengers shouted their dismay.
“The first thing I think is important to say is to apologize to Dr. Dao, his family, the passengers on that flight, our customers, our employees”, Munoz said. Three of these passengers willingly gave up their seats, but the fourth, Dao, refused – claiming he had to get back to his patients. Video of the violent incident posted on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo drew more than 210 million views by late Tuesday. He was allowed to practice medicine in 2015, however, provided he met certain conditions.
Joking that she might have to have some members of her audience escorted out of the building, she proposed a simple solution for United Airlines to avoid this situation in the future: stop overbooking flights.
After a video surfaced of a man being forcibly dragged from a United Airlines flight out of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Oscar Munoz’s initial response was simple and straightforward.
“I share all of those sentiments, and above all: my deepest apologies for what happened”.
Munoz said United would be examining its incentive programme for volunteers on overbooked flights and that once a passenger is already seated, “your incentive model needs to change”.
“Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this”, the CEO wrote in his first comments, saying that United was sorry that some passengers had to be “re-accomodated”. “This will never happen again on a United Airlines flight”, he said.
“No, he can’t be”, Munoz said. “No one should be treated that way”, he said. Dao and Munoz had not spoken as of 11 a.m. WATCH: MUNOZ INTERVIEW WITH ABC NEWSMunoz said the incident was the result of a system failure.
He said he had not yet spoken to Dao to offer a personal apology, which Munoz said was warranted.
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The security officer involved has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation.
