PICTURED: The internal medicine specialist father-of-five who was beaten and dragged off an overbooked United flight as CEO pens ‘tone deaf’ email DEFENDING staff
The passenger who was dragged from an United Airlines flight is 69-year-old grandfather Dr David Dao.
Footage of the Vietnamese-American being hauled off the overbooked flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday caused outrage on Monday.
Dr Dao was heard in videos captured of his shocking eviction saying he needed to get home to Louisville so he could see patients.
DailyMail.com can reveal Dr Dao is a father of five and a grandfather, who specializes in internal medicine. Four of his five children are doctors.
His wife Teresa, 69, is a pediatrican who trained at Ho Chi Minh University in Saigon and also practices in Elizabethtown, Kentucky – about 40 miles south of Louisville.
Their eldest son Tim, 34, practices medicine in Texas; their second son Ben, 31, is a medical graduate; their daughter Christine, 33, is a doctor in Durham, NC; and their youngster daughter Angela, 27, is a medical graduate of the University of Kentucky.
Scroll down for video
Their other daughter, Crystal – Christine’s twin – is a married mother in Barrington, Illinois.
Dr Dao has previously worked at Hardin Memorial Hospital and owned a medical practice.
It was also revealed he had previously been given a suspended jail sentence for illegally obtaining and trafficking controlled substances by fraud and deceit.
He was also found to have in engaged in sex with a male patient and then supplied him with drugs, including Oxycontin, in exchange for sexual favors.
His license was suspended in 2003, and it was then partially re-instated in 2015.
Dr Dao is also a keen poker player, and has competed in World Series of Poker events in the past.
He joined the circuit in 2006, and had his best result when he finished second in a tournament in 2009.
The WSOP‘s website claims he has pocketed $234,664 in winnings over his time on the felt.
In the hours after his identity was revealed, United saw its stock price crash in morning trading action.
The airline’s share price hit a low of $68.39 at 11.13am, after opening the day at $70.15. It was a drop of about 2.6 per cent.
But the price has recovered during the early afternoon, and is none back at $69.82, MarketWatch reports.
It came after United CEO Oscar Munoz released a statement Monday night that doubled down on his airline crew’s decision to remove an elderly passenger, claiming he was ‘disruptive and belligerent’.
The airline is facing a furious backlash after footage emerged of the 69-year-old, bleeding heavily as he was pulled from the jet.
Amidst the anger, Munoz issued a public apology saying he ‘apologized for having to re-accommodate these customers.’
But in a private email to employees, the CEO defended the crew’s actions, calling the passenger ‘disruptive and belligerent’ and praising his staff for going ‘above and beyond’.
source: dailymail.co.uk