The 69-year-old passenger who was dragged from United flight has been identified
(Dr. David Dao has been identified as the passenger who was dragged from a United Airlines flight after refusing to give up his seat.Facebook/Audra Dickerson)
David Dao, 69, has been named as the passenger who was dragged from a United Airlines flight after refusing to give up his seat, according to The Courier-Journal.
The Louisville news outlet reports that Dao is a doctor practicing in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
Audra Bridges, a passenger on the United flight, recorded a video of the incident that ignited backlash on social media. The Courier-Journal report partially confirms the account given by Bridges, who had said the passenger dragged off the plane was a doctor.
"This man is a doctor and has to be at the hospital in the morning. He did not want to get off," she wrote in the video's caption on Facebook.
Business Insider has not confirmed the Courier-Journal reporting, which included criminal allegations from his past.
The Courier report says Dao attended medical school in Vietnam before moving to the US and is permitted to practice medicine in Kentucky.
United Airlines asked for volunteers to give up their seats to make room for crew members in exchange for $1,000. When no one volunteered, a United manager selected several passengers to leave the plane. When Dao refused, he was forcibly removed from the flight by officers working for the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Dao was treated for injuries he had suffered to his face in the incident. The Department of Transportation is reviewing the events that transpired, and an officer involved has been placed on leave.
Read the Courier-Journal article in full here.
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