On April 11, the market value of United Airlines fell $250 million in a day because of videos showing the airport police being excessively physical when removing a passenger from a plane in order to emplane four crew members. In one clip, posted by passenger Audra Bridges to Facebook, guards can be seen aggressively grabbing and then dragging the passenger down the aisle of the plane. When he tried to get back to his seat, the airport police beat him harder. Other passengers can be heard screaming and shouting “Oh my God” and “Look at what you did to him.” After the videos were released, a lot of people were outraged by the cruel act and boycotted United Airlines, which led to the collapse of the stock price.
On April 9, passengers boarded United Airlines Flight 3411 at Chicago O'Hare Airport bound for Kentucky. At that time, several crew members came up to the check-in counter and said they had to board the plane. United Airlines offered $800 to passengers willing to voluntarily give up their seats. There were no volunteers. Eventually they randomly chose passengers and forced them out. One of the randomly chosen passengers refused because he is a doctor and he had a patient to treat. Then the crew called the airport police officers to remove him. When the passenger resisted, police beat him mercilessly before dragging him out. The victim turned out to be David Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese American physician. He claimed that, in the forced process, his nose was broken and two front teeth were knocked out. He also showed signs of concussion.
After the incident, United Airlines refused to admit responsibility, claiming instead the passenger had an aggressive attitude. However, due to the stocks crash and critical public opinion, they gave a formal apology and promised to prevent this from happening ever again. The Chicago media reported that David Dao planned to sue United Airlines after hiring Thomas Demetrios, the best personal injury attorney, and Steven Gollan, a lawyer specializing in enterprise litigation. However, on April 28, David Dao's attorneys announced that Mr. Dao and United Airlines reached an amicable agreement.
To prevent a situation like this from occurring again, United Airlines announced that they created a new policy to pay $10,000 to passengers who voluntarily give up their seats when flights are overbooked. Moreover, United Airlines said it also changed 10 policies to improve service for passengers after the accident. It looks like United Airlines is moving in the right directions. Hopefully, events like this will never happen again.
