Dao goes to court; wants United to save video, records from plane

Attorneys for the man forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight at O’Hare Airport earlier this week have filed an emergency legal petition to preserve a variety of records related to his removal.

Dr. David Dao was on a United Express flight from Chicago to Louisville Sunday when airline personnel realized they needed four more seats for an extra flight crew that was needed in Kentucky. Three other passengers eventually agreed to leave, but Dao insisted he needed to return home to care for patients.

Several cellphone videos captured Dao’s removal and Department of Aviation police dragging the man — whose face was bloodied — off the plane. An aviation security police officer was placed on leave after videos of Dao’s removal sparked a social media backlash against United.

Dao’s lawyers are seeking to preserve:

• Surveillance video recordings depicting the boarding of all passengers.
• The cockpit voice recording.
• The passenger list.
• The complete employee and crew list.
• All incident reports prepared by the city and United.
• The protocol of United Airlines regarding the removal of passengers from commercial flights.
• The personnel files of the aviation security police who removed Dao from the plane.

Dao’s attorneys at the law firm Corboy & Demetrio said they would hold a news conference on Thursday to discuss the petition.

A spokesman for the city’s law department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday, United CEO Oscar Munoz sent a letter to employees backing the actions of the crew for following “procedures.” Wednesday, though, he said the carrier will not allow police to remove a passenger from an aircraft again.

“That is not who our family at United is and you saw us at a bad moment,” Munoz told ABC News. “And this can never, will never, happen again on a United Airlines flight.”

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Dao Petition by jroneill on Scribd