AUDIO: DOCTOR DAO DARED TO BE DRAGGED

The Kentucky physician at the center of the United Airlines debacle dared security to drag him off the plane. In the 73-second clip posted by the social media news agency Storyful, Dr. David Dao, 69, is seen seated on the plane on the phone as security personnel huddle around his row, telling him he needs to deplane. “I’m a physician and I have to work tomorrow at 8 o’clock,” Dao can be heard saying in the clip, taken by a passenger seated a row behind Dao. When officers tell him he needs to leave, Dao refuses: “No, I am not going. I am not going.” When security insisted again, he can be heard saying, “Then drag me down.” At the time, Dao apparently was on the phone with his lawyer discussing suing United Airlines after he was selected at random to be yanked from the flight.
* That was after the lawyer said: “See if you can goad them into overreacting. We’ll get millions!”
* United’s response: “Mr. Dao asked to be dragged, and at United, the customer is always right.”
* “Then drag me down”? Should have gone with “Don’t Tread on Me.”
* There’s some progress on the legal front: I hear Dr. Dao has dropped his settlement demands from a 747 down to a 727.
* Next up the United board of directors wants to drag that CEO out of the boardroom and rough him up a bit.
* The CEO sure got humbled after his initial instincts to cop an attitude about this.
* This could provide another new business slogan: “Fly United Airlines … Dare to Be Dragged!”
* How would you like to be sitting in this doctor’s waiting room the next morning and you look up at the TV and see him being dragged down the aisle of an airplane?