Dao was forcibly removed from a fully-booked United Express flight out of O'Hare International Airport on Sunday to make room for crew members.
Demetrio said the video showed an extraordinary instance of something that happens too routinely: Airlines overbooking flights then bumping paying customers.
A scorpion stung a United Airlines passenger flying from Houston to Calgary, Canada, a couple said.
United had selected Dao and three other passengers at random for removal from the plane after unsuccessfully offering $800 in travel vouchers and a hotel stay to customers willing to give up their seats. And you saw us at a bad moment. He said his client was in a "secure location" because he has been hounded by media, but that he would speak at a future date.
"What happened to my dad should never happen to any human being regardless of the circumstances", Dao's daughter, Crystal Dao Pepper, said at the news conference.
It's another potential public relations nightmare for United Airlines.
Linda Bell said United apologized to her husband Wednesday and offered him compensation.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, has said she would propose legislation barring airlines from involuntarily bumping passengers from oversold flights.
In a nationally televised interview Wednesday, United CEO Oscar Munoz said the airline had been attempting to contact the family, and in a statement after the news conference, United said it had contacted Dao to apologize.
North Korea threatens 'merciless response' to any United States provocation
In response to the most recent missile test, the US routed a naval strike group to the Korean peninsula as a show of force. Separately on Twitter he expressed confidence China, Pyongyang's sole ally, would "properly deal with North Korea".
The senators said they were "deeply concerned" about the incident involving Dr. David Dao, pointing out that he had paid for a ticket and been cleared for the flight.
Demetrio said Dao had not heard from United or the city. It also said United pilots are "infuriated" by what happened and blamed the incident on the "grossly inappropriate" actions of the security officers.
"We have been getting calls from people who used to work for the aviation department, who trained these officers - and nothing, nothing in the training, I submit, as it will be proven, says in a non-confrontational situation where the other passengers are in jeopardy should this type of conduct ever be utilised or force utilised", the lawyer said.
Demetrio acknowledged Dao could have chosen to comply with the airline and officers' instructions to leave the aircraft.
Demetrio said he doesn't believe Dao's race - Dao came to the US from Vietnam in 1975 during the fall of Saigon - played a role in what happened.
A man dragged screaming off a United Airlines flight described his ordeal as more horrifying than his experiences in the Vietnam War.
"There are no excuses", Alderman Michael Zalewski said.
An Elizabethtown physician who was dragged off a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday is out of the hospital but still recovering from injuries, his lawyer said Thursday.





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