Dr. David Dao and United Airlines: A Confidential Settlement After Flight 3411

On April 9, 2017, United Express Flight 3411 sat fully boarded at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, ready for the short hop to Louisville. United needed four seats for a crew that had to reach Kentucky for the next morning's flights. No passenger volunteered to give up a seat for the offered compensation, so the airline selected four people to leave involuntarily. One of them was Dr. David Dao.

Dao, a 69-year-old pulmonologist from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, refused to go. He told the crew he had patients to see the following day. Chicago Department of Aviation security officers were called aboard. They pulled him from his window seat, and in the struggle his face hit an armrest. Officers then dragged him down the aisle by his arms, apparently unconscious, his glasses pushed up on his forehead. Other passengers recorded all of it on their phones.

The injuries were serious. Dao suffered a concussion, a broken nose, the loss of two front teeth, and sinus damage that required reconstructive surgery. Within hours the videos had spread across the world, and the footage of a paying passenger left bloodied and limp became one of the worst public relations disasters in modern airline history. United's chief executive, Oscar Munoz, first described the episode as "re-accommodating" customers, then later called it "truly horrific."

Dao retained Corboy & Demetrio in Chicago. Thomas A. Demetrio led the representation, working alongside Stephen L. Golan of Golan Christie Taglia. The lawyers moved quickly to lock down evidence, asking a Cook County judge to order United and the city to preserve cockpit recordings, surveillance video, and the involved officers' records before anything could be lost. They made clear they were examining the conduct of both the airline and the aviation officers who carried Dao off.

The case never reached a courtroom. On April 27, 2017, eighteen days after the incident, Corboy & Demetrio announced that Dao and United had reached a settlement, on the same day the airline unveiled policy changes meant to keep involuntary removals from happening again. "United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others," Demetrio said.

At Dao's request, and with the firm's agreement, the amount was made confidential and has never been disclosed. Because the matter resolved by negotiated settlement rather than a jury verdict, there was no award to be reduced or overturned on appeal. The terms also resolved Dao's potential claims against the city of Chicago, whose officers had pulled him from the plane.