CHICAGO — The Louisville doctor who was bloodied and dragged off a United Airlines flight Sunday took first steps toward filing a lawsuit against the city and the airline Wednesday as officials suspended two more airline security officers.
In all, three officers removed Dr. David Dao from his seat and dragged him off a United Airlines flight have been suspended by city officials as they review the incident, city Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride wrote in an emailed statement.
None of the officers, who are represented by Service Employees International Union 73, have been identified by city officials.
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Dao filed an emergency bill of discovery in the Circuit Court of Cook County's Chancery Division Wednesday, asking for surveillance video, cockpit voice recordings, a list of passengers and airline employees on the flight and personnel files of the Aviation Department officer who dragged Dao from the plane.
Dao and his family are planning to discuss the now-infamous incident, which was captured on video and went viral, Thursday at 10 a.m.
Read the filing here (story continues below):
United Airlines flight 3411, an Embraer jet flown through the airline's United Express arm, was scheduled to depart from O'Hare International Airport at 5:40 p.m. Sunday headed to Lousiville International Airport when the company asked four passengers to voluntarily leave the plane so that four nonworking crew members could travel to Louisville, according to several travelers who posted about the incident online.
Passengers were offered a hotel stay and compensation ranging from $400 to $800, in accordance with U.S. Transportation Department rules requiring airlines to compensate passengers who miss flights due to the controversial practice of overbooking.
Passenger Audra Bridges, who posted a video of the account on Facebook, said that when no one volunteered to give up a seat, the airline said a computer would randomly select passengers to be removed from the flight. Included in that selection was an adult man who passengers said identified himself to airport staff as a doctor.
Bridges said the man became upset and explained that he had patients to see in Louisville in the morning. Video shows several law enforcement officers gathered around the man's seat before one man lunges at the seated passenger, who lets out a loud wail. Police dragged the man, who appeared to have blood coming from his mouth and whose glasses were askew, out of his seat and down the aisle by his arms as other passengers watched in horror.
Early Monday afternoon, an Aviation Department spokesperson said the officer who dragged the man was placed on leave Monday "pending a thorough review of the situation."
