‘I stayed in my house for months’: doctor David Dao, who was dragged screaming from United Airlines flight, finally breaks silence
- Dao suffered a concussion, broken nose and lost two teeth while being forcibly removed from an overbooked flight in 2017
- Waking up in hospital, he did not know his story had gone viral at first, but media attention soon overwhelmed him
Exactly two years after passenger David Dao was dragged, screaming, from his seat on a United Airlines flight, he has broken his silence, saying he has shed many tears over the incident.
Dao’s case captured worldwide attention in 2017 when he was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, resulting in a concussion, a broken nose and two missing teeth, according to ABC News. Dao, who has not spoken publicly about the incident since it happened, said Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America that when he first saw the video footage, “I just cried.”
Still, Dao said he has forgiven the airline as well as the security agents who dragged him down the aisle and back into the airport terminal.
“I’m not angry with them,” he said. “They have a job to do. They had to do it. If they don’t do it, they must lose their job. So, I’m not angry with them or anything like this.”
Dao said he decided to speak out publicly as a way to thank those who stood behind him.
The doctor said he boarded the plane on April 9, 2017, preparing to head home to Kentucky, where he was planning to open a free clinic for US veterans, according to ABC News. He did not make it. The flight was overbooked and, when he refused to give up his seat, he was dragged off the plane.