Man Rescued from Horrors of United Flight

[Мастер]

David Dao is a medical doctor, originally from Vietnam, but now living in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. On Sunday, he was in Chicago, but had appointments to see patients the next day. Apparently Dr. Dao takes patient care so seriously that he was willing to brave a flight on United Airlines to make it back to Kentucky to keep those appointments.

But, Dr. Dao's flight was overbooked. Well, not really overbooked, but United Airlines decided that four passengers had to be removed from the Chicago to Louisville flight to make room for four United employees, reflecting priorities that should not be surprising to anyone at all who has ever flown on the airline - employees rank higher than passengers. In fact, everyone ranks higher than passengers.

As no volunteers could be found to take an offer of voluntary compensation to leave the flight, four passengers were selected for removal. Three of them went quietly, apparently including Dr. Dao's wife, also a medical doctor. Not so Dr. Dao. He refused to leave the aeroplane, citing his need to see his patients the next day. Police were called, and videos of Dr. Dao being forcibly removed, face bloodied, onlooking passengers shrieking, emerged on social media. By some reports, Dr. Dao, bloodied as he was, managed to escape and re-enter the aeroplane, and was forcibly removed a second time. Stockholm syndrome? The removal was so shockingly brutal that even the press secretary for the Trump administration found it "troubling".

Oscar Munoz, who had a heart attack and required a heart transplant shortly after learning he would become CEO of United Airlines, gave a rather half-hearted non-apology, which was widely criticised by PR experts. But, anyone who was expecting the CEO to criticise the airline's actions does not know United Airlines very well. The "United Breaks Guitars" incident apparently did not result in learning.

At one point, United shares fell 4%, losing more than one billion US dollars in value, causing Мастер to be surprised to learn that the firm actually had a market capitalisation of 25 billion dollars; previously, United seemed to serve its investors about as well as it did its passengers. Social media in China, United's second largest source of revenue, has been buzzing with accusations of racism, reflecting an ignorance of the fact that United is perfectly willing to do this to any passenger, black, white, yellow, brown, green, orange, or blue.

Meanwhile, Dr. Dao was saved from the unspeakable horror of flying on a United Airlines flight, and shows shocking ingratitude for being rescued from this truly wretched fate.

[Lance]

I couldn't help but think of you while I was watching that video.

[Enzo]

But did they lose his luggage?

[Lance]

To make matters worse, the United CEO has now vowed to never let passengers escape like this in the future.

You can see the original video here: Man dragged off overbooked United flight

[Lance]

[g-one]

I loved the 'putting the hospital in hospitality'

[MM_Dandy]

I loved the 'putting the hospital in hospitality'

That's awesome, mind if I steal that?

[g-one]

It's not mine, there's lots of good ones out there:

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2017/04/11/peo ... -best-far/

[Lance]

[Мастер]

Oh, this is too funny.

The David Dao incident came to my attention once again, and I read up on it at the Wikipedia page, found here.

My personal favourite line from the article:

Through his lawyers, Dao described his ordeal as "more horrifying" than his experience of the Fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War.

So defenders of the US government and military, when faced with criticism over its handling of Vietnam, and ultimately, its failure to prevent the communist takeover of the south, can at least point out that it was better than being on United Airlines

[Heid the Ba]

Oh that is good.