Dr. David Dao, who was dragged screaming off a United Airlines flight, described his ordeal as “more horrifying” than his experiences in the Vietnam War, his lawyer says.
David Dao’s daughter, Crystal Dao Pepper, told the news conference in Chicago they are “sickened” by his treatment.
Video of the incident has been watched millions of times online.
Law enforcement officials dragged Dr. David Dao off Sunday evening’s Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky, flight because it was fully booked, and the airline wanted four passengers to make way for staff members.
The man had refused to leave, saying he needed to go home to see his patients.
Lawyer Thomas Demetrio told journalists on April 13: “He [Dr. David Dao] said that he left Vietnam in 1975 when Saigon fell and he was on a boat and he said he was terrified.
“He said that being dragged down the aisle was more horrifying and harrowing than what he experienced when leaving Vietnam.”
Crystal Dao Pepper, who lives in suburban Chicago, said: “What happened to my dad should have never happened to any human being, regardless of the circumstance.
“We were horrified and shocked and sickened to learn what happened to him and to see what happened to him.”
Image source Twitter
Dr. David Dao’s lawyers have filed an emergency court request for the airline to preserve evidence ahead of a hearing on April 17.
The filing with an Illinois state court demands that United Airlines and the city of Chicago preserve all surveillance videos, cockpit voice recordings, passenger and crew lists related to the flight.
The airline said it would refund the ticket costs of all passengers on April 9 flight.
Dr. David Dao was released on April 12 from a Chicago hospital, his lawyer said, adding that he planned to have reconstructive surgery.
Thomas Demetrio, and a second lawyer for David Dao, said that neither they nor the Dao family had heard from United Airlines yet.
“For a long time airlines, United in particular, have bullied us,” Thomas Demetrio told the press conference.
“We want respect and we want dignity, that’s it! Not a big deal.”
The lawyer said he did not believe Dr. Dao’s race played a factor, despite an email he had received suggesting he was “the modern day, Asian Rosa Parks”, a reference to the civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955.
Thomas Demetrio also said the family had not heard from United yet.
However, United said in a statement that its chief executive, Oscar Munoz, and the company had “called Dr. Dao on numerous occasions to express our heartfelt and deepest apologies”.
The airline did not comment on the potential litigation.
On April 12, United’s CEO Oscar Munoz said he felt “shame and embarrassment” and vowed it would never happen again.
More than 150,000 thousand people have signed online petitions calling for Oscar Munoz to resign, but he has refused to do so.
Oscar Munoz said Dr. David Dao had not been at fault, adding “no one should be treated that way. Period.”
However, Oscar Munoz initially described Dr. Dao as “disruptive and belligerent”.
United Airlines has confirmed it is offering compensation to customers on United Flight 3411 for their flights.
Three aviation security officers involved in removing Dr. David Dao from the plane have been “placed on leave”, says the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The US Department of Transportation is reviewing whether United Airlines complied with rules on booking.
John Kerry has visited the place in the Mekong Delta where he was ambushed during the Vietnam War.
The outgoing secretary of state and former Navy lieutenant met a 70-year-old former member of the Viet Cong, who remembers the 1969 attack.
John Kerry and his former enemy, Vo Ban Tam, warmly shook hands.
The secretary of state, who is in Vietnam as part of his last trip before leaving office, won a medal for bravery for his actions but became an anti-war campaigner after returning home.
John Kerry told Vo Ban Tam he was glad they were both alive.
Vo Ban Tam, now a shrimp farmer, said he knew a man whom John Kerry shot and killed and remembered the plan of attack when they first spotted the US patrol boat.
Image source Flickr
The Viet Cong unit had a rocket launcher and was shooting at the US fighters to try to steer them into its range.
However, John Kerry took a bold move by leaping ashore to pursue his assailants, and shot dead the rocket launcher’s operator.
John Kerry, then aged 26, was credited with saving his crew and was awarded the US military’s Silver Star for bravery.
Vo Ban Tam named the dead fighter as Ba Thanh and said he was 24 years old.
“He was a good soldier,” he told John Kerry, speaking through an interpreter.
John Kerry never knew the name or age of the man he shot.
When he unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, John Kerry faced critics who claimed he shot a teenager.
One of John Kerry’s aides told the Washington Post that the former military man had been searching Google Maps for the site of the ambush. On January 12, he was said to have woken, jetlagged, in the middle of the night in his Hanoi hotel and called one of his old crew members to rack his brains.
John Kerry said returning to the scene was weird and a little surreal.
The secretary of state is visiting Vietnam as the first stop on his last foreign trip before stepping aside when the Trump administration takes power on January 20.
It is John Kerry’s fourth visit to Vietnam as Washington’s top diplomat.
Working under President Barack Obama, John Kerry is known for taking a specific interest in improving relations between the US and Vietnam.
He was awarded other honors for his service in Vietnam, including three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action, but he became a prominent anti-war activist after returning to the US in 1969.
According to AFP, John Kerry told reporters on January 14: “It impressed on me the notion that you really need to analyze and understand what lies underneath the slogans.”
Duck Dynasty ’s Uncle Si Robertson stars in Stephen Baldwin’s war drama Faith of Our Fathers.
Directed by Carey Scott, the movie is about two sons on a road trip to learn about their fathers. It is set in 1969 during Vietnam the War, where the two young fathers report to duty. One father has a strong faith and the other one is a cynic. Years later, their sons, Wayne and John Paul, meet as strangers and they form a friendship as they try to retrace their fathers’ footsteps.
Guided by handwritten letters from their fathers from the battlefield, they embark on an unforgettable journey to The Wall-the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Along the way, they discover the devastation of war cannot break the love of a father for his son.
Si Robertson, a Vietnam veteran himself, says he is proud to be part of a movie that promotes patriotism.
The Duck Dynasty star, who plays a gas station clerk in the war drama, believes the movie is important because it shows the many sacrifices made by the men who fought in wars.
Si Robertson wrote on his Facebook page: “Faith of Our Fathers does its best to honor the men who gave up their lives for their country. Hey, it’s a must see Jack!”
Faith of Our Fathers, also starring Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Downes and David A.R. White, will premiere on July 1st on the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War.
The 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War is being commemorated with a military parade through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.
On April 30, 1975, Ho Chi Minh City – which was then called Saigon and was the capital of South Vietnam – was captured by communist troops from the North.
North Vietnam’s victory ended the war in which at least three million Vietnamese died, as well as 58,000 US soldiers.
The re-unification process was completed in 1976.
Regiments of soldiers in dress uniform and elaborate floats are slowly making their way through city streets.
Army Lt-Gen Nguyen Quoc Khanh told crowds: “The April 30 victory was a golden turning point for the Vietnamese people.”
Forty years ago North Vietnam’s tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace, the final assault on the US-backed South.
The North’s victory reunited Vietnam under the communist government after decades of war.
Vietnam War was very divisive in the US as well, as it was the first to be extensively covered by the Western media. It was also the first to be lost by a modern global superpower.
McDonald’s has opened its first restaurant in communist-controlled Vietnam.
Hundreds of people queued for the opening of the restaurant in the southern city of Ho Chi Minh, AFP says.
Ho Chi Minh, known as Saigon during the Vietnam War, was where the US-backed government was based until it fell to communist forces 38 years ago.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Vietnam is being run by the prime minister’s son-in-law.
Henry Nguyen flipped burgers at a McDonald’s restaurant while a teenager growing up in the United States, where his family fled at the end of the war.
The first McDonald’s restaurant in Vietnam is being run by the prime minister’s son-in-law
He said last July, after winning the franchise, it had been his dream to open a McDonald’s since returning to Vietnam more than a decade ago.
The move underlines Vietnam’s hunger for Western consumer brands and the attractions for foreign investors, say observers.
Despite the Vietnamese economy’s recent slowdown, foreign brands are popular among the youthful population whose parents had few of the food and lifestyle options now available in the country.
Starbucks, Subway, Burger King, and KFC all have a presence there.
Henry Nguyen is the founder of travel and food group Good Day Hospitality and managing general partner of investment firm IDG Ventures Vietnam. He is married to the daughter of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Vietnam is holding two-day state funeral for General Vo Nguyen Giap, the commander credited with overseeing the defeat of French and US forces in his country.
General Vo Nguyen Giap died a week ago at the age of 102.
Hundreds of thousands of people have paid their respects at General Vo Nguyen Giap’s Hanoi home, where he is lying in state, and at military centres across Vietnam.
On Sunday, a grand procession will escort the general’s body to his home town in Quang Binh province for burial.
A photograph of General Vo Nguyen Giap and a gilt frame containing his military medals were placed above the coffin which was draped in the national flag at the National Funeral Hall in Hanoi.
Soldiers in white uniforms stood to attention as officials, including PM Nguyen Tan Dung and President Truong Tan Sang, paid their last respects.
Vietnam is holding two-day state funeral for General Vo Nguyen Giap
Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap’s family, wearing black, stood nearby while thick clouds of incense filled the room where his body lay in state.
On Friday, the Vietnamese flag outside Hanoi’s Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was lowered to half-mast to mark the start of the official mourning period.
The son of a rice grower, Vo Nguyen Giap became active in politics in the late 1920s and worked as a journalist before joining Ho Chi Minh’s Indochinese Communist Party.
In 1930 Vo Nguyen Giap was briefly jailed for leading anti-French protests but later earned a law degree from Hanoi University.
He helped Ho Chi Minh found the Viet Minh and his defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 effectively ended French colonial rule in the region.
Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap was North Vietnam’s defense minister at the time of the Tet Offensive against US forces in 1968, often cited as a key campaign that led to the Americans’ withdrawal.
It has been more than 30 years since Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap held any position of power within the Vietnamese Communist Party.
The Communist Party would like Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap’s death to remind the Vietnamese of its role in fighting for national liberation, he adds, but it will also bring home to many just how far a party tainted by corruption and nepotism has fallen from the ideals it once espoused.
Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, who masterminded victories against France and the US, has died aged 102.
General Vo Nguyen Giap’s defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1953 made him the first military commander to defeat a major Western power in Asia.
General Vo Nguyen Giap’s defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1953 made him the first military commander to defeat a major Western power in Asia
He went on to oversee the Tet Offensive against American forces in 1968, often cited as one of the factors that led to the Americans’ withdrawal.
General Vo Nguyen Giap also published a number of works on military strategy.
[youtube v4ngg7LgONQ]
This website has updated its privacy policy in compliance with EU GDPR 2016/679. Please read this to review the updates about which personal data we collect on our site. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our updated policy. AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
