A lawyer representing the man who was dragged off a United Airlines flight earlier this week said he is likely to sue the airline after he suffered serious injuries from the incident.
The lawyer, Thomas Demetrio, said the airline has "bullied" passengers for a long time and he will "probably" file a lawsuit on behalf of Dr. David Dao, who will now have to undergo surgery to correct the injuries he sustained.
Demetrio said Dao will need reconstructive surgery to fix a broken nose and two lost teeth. Dao suffered a concussion during the altercation with police, Demetrio said, but he has already been released from the hospital.
The incident took place Sunday when Dao refused to give up his seat on a full flight from Chicago to Louisville.
Cellphone video of the altercation shows Dao, limp and bleeding from a facial wound, being dragged from a United Airlines flight by three police officers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Dao was one of four passengers bumped from the flight to accommodate four airline employees. He supposedly was chosen at random after all the passengers spurned the airline's offer of cash payments if they would agree to disembark and take a later flight to their destination in Kentucky.
On Wednesday, Dao's lawyers filed preliminary paperwork asking an Illinois state court to order United to preserve video recordings and other evidence related to the incident.
The lawyers want United and the city of Chicago, which oversees the airport, to preserve surveillance videos, cockpit voice recordings, passenger and crew lists, and other materials related to the flight.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz has said he was ``ashamed'' when he saw the video, and said the airline would refrain from forcibly removing passengers from future flights.
