Something was off on this flight, no doubt about it.
Apr 19 / Apr 9 2017
United we certainly didn't stand.
And after reading the endless shrieking outrage, we felt like saying "Just kill me," too.
We’ve said this before at Two Weeks Ago News and we’ll no doubt say it again: we don’t know anything about anything. We read the same stories you read; we watch the same news and experience the same incredulity at the reactions of the masses. But we have a couple of theories about how this whole Dr. Dao dragged off the United Airlines flight story is going to play out. Ready?
4. None of the above because not one of us will remember his name in a matter of weeks.
We’re thinking the answer is number 4, although the other scenarios are all certainly reasonable possibilities.
Look, we watched that video and we can’t explain it either. We read a few of the stories that bounced around the web and social media but then just got weary of the whole thing. As near as we can piece it together, Dr. and Dr. Dao were asked to give up their two seats and agreed to take a different flight, then changed their minds once they learned of the inordinate delay and the impact on their plans.
After that, the physical confrontation began. Two Chicago transit officers were apparently trying to convince Dr. Dao to cooperate, then a third officer became aggressive and forced Dr. Dao out of his seat. At that point, he started screaming, stating his profession and accusing them of racism, profiling him because he was Chinese. (In one of the videos, a woman hurries up the aisle behind him and appears to be connected to the situation, although we haven’t seen her specifically identified as his wife.)
Sometime after he was forcibly removed and injured, Dr. Dao somehow ran back onto the plane, bruised and bloody, saying over and over that he had to get home, looking disoriented and confused. There are several seconds of a video – presumably shot during his re-entry - where he says, several times, “Just kill me, just kill me.” (What?) And then we hear another voice asking him to relax.
We haven’t seen any video of how he was removed that second time – which is remarkable and frankly incredible since we shoot everything that moves these days – or doesn’t as it turns out - but the story we linked above described that second activity as “escorted off” rather than ”removed.” And did it replicate the mayhem of the first incident? Hardly. The term we read was “peaceful.”
"Peaceful?" Okay, sure. Why not?
The injuries Dr. Dao sustained are outrageous. The behavior he exhibited – the screaming, the accusations – are also outrageous. People in China are outraged. (No word on people in Vietnam being outraged, although he has since indicated that his treatment at the hands of the police was worse than what he experienced during the evacuation and the fall of Saigon.) People here, of course, are outraged. Rightly so. Right?
We guess so. Not one of us wants to believe we risk a concussion and having our teeth knocked out by NOT agreeing to deplane when an airline demands we give up our seat, whatever the reason, but it appears that we all just watched that happen. No one wants to believe that the police officers assigned to an airport terminal will use force to remove a passenger from a plane, creating a chaotic atmosphere and physical harm as they do. But we seem to have witnessed just that.
We hope Dr. Dao recovers fully from this horrible and disturbing assault. This incident can’t be over soon enough for him or for those who care for him. Apparently, he and his family have accepted the apologies offered by United and are pursuing damages and compensation from the airline and the city of Chicago.
We do, however, wonder about the following aspects of this story:
Click here to watch the crew talking with an increasingly uncooperative Dr. Dao in the minutes leading up to the confrontation.
Click here to watch the video of the maligned four-person crew that required the occupied seats and caused the entire incident, as they boarded the plane and took their seats.
Click here to watch the flight crew address the aftermath of the incident with the remaining passengers before takeoff.
Oh wait. There isn’t any video of any of those scenes. Doesn’t it make sense that ALL of those scenes would have taken place before takeoff? Wouldn’t you think that there was time for someone – even one person?! – to shoot video of lead up to the chaos or the aftermath and then share it?
Moving on.
It’s all horrible, no question. And we’ve seen a lot of weird things happen on airplanes over the years. Yes, we have, including passengers standing in the aisle while a US Air commercial plane landed. Not kidding, not even a little. Let’s just say that after that flight, we never felt the need to put our tray table up nor return our seat back to the upright position as we prepared for landing, we can promise you that.
But this? This United mayhem? Truly disturbing but we feel like we never saw nor heard the final scene, although maybe it’s coming. Maybe in two weeks or so.
United we certainly didn't stand.
And after reading the endless shrieking outrage, we felt like saying "Just kill me," too.
We’ve said this before at Two Weeks Ago News and we’ll no doubt say it again: we don’t know anything about anything. We read the same stories you read; we watch the same news and experience the same incredulity at the reactions of the masses. But we have a couple of theories about how this whole Dr. Dao dragged off the United Airlines flight story is going to play out. Ready?
- The Travel Channel or NatGeo or FXX scoops him up to become the host of his own show about travel nightmares and how they were resolved.
- United Airline hires Dr. Dao to become their spokesperson after they offer him significant compensation. He appears in their 2018 Superbowl commercial, which portrays him having a great time on board with the crew and the CEO of the airline. Tagline: “If we’ve convinced Dr. Dao to get back on board, isn’t it time you fly United, too?”
- His name becomes a verb used to describe any kind of unsavory travel incident. “Wow, when they announced that third departure delay, I thought that guy in the aisle was going to go all Dr. Dao on someone.”
4. None of the above because not one of us will remember his name in a matter of weeks.
We’re thinking the answer is number 4, although the other scenarios are all certainly reasonable possibilities.
Look, we watched that video and we can’t explain it either. We read a few of the stories that bounced around the web and social media but then just got weary of the whole thing. As near as we can piece it together, Dr. and Dr. Dao were asked to give up their two seats and agreed to take a different flight, then changed their minds once they learned of the inordinate delay and the impact on their plans.
After that, the physical confrontation began. Two Chicago transit officers were apparently trying to convince Dr. Dao to cooperate, then a third officer became aggressive and forced Dr. Dao out of his seat. At that point, he started screaming, stating his profession and accusing them of racism, profiling him because he was Chinese. (In one of the videos, a woman hurries up the aisle behind him and appears to be connected to the situation, although we haven’t seen her specifically identified as his wife.)
Sometime after he was forcibly removed and injured, Dr. Dao somehow ran back onto the plane, bruised and bloody, saying over and over that he had to get home, looking disoriented and confused. There are several seconds of a video – presumably shot during his re-entry - where he says, several times, “Just kill me, just kill me.” (What?) And then we hear another voice asking him to relax.
We haven’t seen any video of how he was removed that second time – which is remarkable and frankly incredible since we shoot everything that moves these days – or doesn’t as it turns out - but the story we linked above described that second activity as “escorted off” rather than ”removed.” And did it replicate the mayhem of the first incident? Hardly. The term we read was “peaceful.”
"Peaceful?" Okay, sure. Why not?
The injuries Dr. Dao sustained are outrageous. The behavior he exhibited – the screaming, the accusations – are also outrageous. People in China are outraged. (No word on people in Vietnam being outraged, although he has since indicated that his treatment at the hands of the police was worse than what he experienced during the evacuation and the fall of Saigon.) People here, of course, are outraged. Rightly so. Right?
We guess so. Not one of us wants to believe we risk a concussion and having our teeth knocked out by NOT agreeing to deplane when an airline demands we give up our seat, whatever the reason, but it appears that we all just watched that happen. No one wants to believe that the police officers assigned to an airport terminal will use force to remove a passenger from a plane, creating a chaotic atmosphere and physical harm as they do. But we seem to have witnessed just that.
We hope Dr. Dao recovers fully from this horrible and disturbing assault. This incident can’t be over soon enough for him or for those who care for him. Apparently, he and his family have accepted the apologies offered by United and are pursuing damages and compensation from the airline and the city of Chicago.
We do, however, wonder about the following aspects of this story:
Click here to watch the crew talking with an increasingly uncooperative Dr. Dao in the minutes leading up to the confrontation.
Click here to watch the video of the maligned four-person crew that required the occupied seats and caused the entire incident, as they boarded the plane and took their seats.
Click here to watch the flight crew address the aftermath of the incident with the remaining passengers before takeoff.
Oh wait. There isn’t any video of any of those scenes. Doesn’t it make sense that ALL of those scenes would have taken place before takeoff? Wouldn’t you think that there was time for someone – even one person?! – to shoot video of lead up to the chaos or the aftermath and then share it?
Moving on.
It’s all horrible, no question. And we’ve seen a lot of weird things happen on airplanes over the years. Yes, we have, including passengers standing in the aisle while a US Air commercial plane landed. Not kidding, not even a little. Let’s just say that after that flight, we never felt the need to put our tray table up nor return our seat back to the upright position as we prepared for landing, we can promise you that.
But this? This United mayhem? Truly disturbing but we feel like we never saw nor heard the final scene, although maybe it’s coming. Maybe in two weeks or so.