Dao attorney: Client was dragged like ‘sack of potatoes,’ apology from CEO wouldn’t help
The lawyer for United passenger David Dao said a face-to-face apology from the airline’s CEO wouldn’t mean much after his client was dragged off the plane “like a sack of potatoes.”
“Probably not very far,” said attorney Thomas Demetrio when asked on Monday’s “Today” show how far an apology from United CEO Oscar Munoz would go. “Mr. Munoz had that opportunity to publicly apologize, and then he didn’t, then he called the doctor belligerent, then he finally said ‘mea culpa,’ so we’re past the stage of needing … Munoz to say anything.”
Dao was dragged off an overbooked United flight after refusing to volunteer to give up his seat on April 9. The videos taken by fellow passengers sparking outrage as the 69-year-old doctor lost two front teeth and suffered a concussion and damaged sinuses.
Demetrio said he was not negotiating with United but that he had accepted a new client in the woman whose interaction with an American Airlines flight attendant went viral over the weekend. Demetrio said he wasn’t sure if there would be a lawsuit in that case, but there definitely would be in Dao’s.
“We’re hoping that Dr. Dao being taken off that plane like a sack of potatoes is going to resonate with people,” said Demetrio, “and this latest incident with American Airlines will resonate with people. We live in the age of cellphone video, and corporations have to take heed.”
Demetrio said there may be more video that emerges to further explain the situation and that Dao was in no way belligerent or disruptive as Munoz had originally emailed to United employees the day after the incident.
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