An elderly woman was allegedly left at a New Jersey airport unassisted for half a day. (iStock)
The Chicago Department of Aviation has fired two security officers involved in an incident in which a passenger was dragged off a United Airlines flight after refusing to give up his seat, the city's Office of Inspector General said in a report released Tuesday.
One of the fired officers, a sergeant, was also invovled in an attempt to cover up some details of the April incident that happened at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, according to the report.
UNITED DOCTOR SUFFERED CONCUSSION WHILE BEING DRAGGED FROM FLIGHT, LAWYER SAYS
Four officers were involved in the confrontation with passenger David Dao, who was aboard a flight to Louisville, Kentucky. The Aviation Department suspended the two other officers — one for five days and the other for two. The officer who received the five-day suspension resigned.
The Office of Inspector General said in the report that as a result of the office's findings and recommendations, the Aviation Department fired an officer who "improperly escalated the incident.”
The first officer violated the Aviation Department’s policy and “escalated a non-threatening situation into a physically violent one by forcefully removing a passenger from the aircraft,” a report by Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said.
A sergeant involved in removing facts from a report was also fired. The inspector general report does not identify the officers.
The report says the investigation by the Office of Inspector General found three security officers and a sergeant used excessive force and "made misleading statements and deliberately removed material facts from their reports" on the April 9 incident.
"The use of excessive force caused the passenger to hit his face on an armrest, resulting in a concussion, a broken nose, and the loss of two teeth," the report said.
UNITED PASSENGER DRAGGED OFF FLIGHT SETTLES WITH AIRLINE FOR UNDISCLOSED AMOUNT
Dao, a physician who was 69 at the time of the incident, reached an undisclosed settlement with United less than three weeks after the incident.
The incident aboard United Express Flight 3411 was videotaped by other passengers and widely shared online. It became an international embarrassment for the airline and the Aviation Department.
A report released by the Aviation Department in April in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press identified the officer who pulled Dao out of his seat as James Long. It's not clear if Long lost his job or was suspended, because the inspector general report doesn't name the officers.
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Dao's attorney, Thomas Demetrio, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they were not expecting the dismissal of the security officer who is not a sergeant, but said it may resonate with others.
"In firing him, perhaps it will send a clear message to police and airline personnel all over the world that unnecessary violence is not the way to handle passenger matters," Demetrio said.
The Aviation Department has confirmed that a review of its policies and procedures is underway and will be finished by the first quarter of 2018.
Demetrio said it surprises him that the Aviation Department's review of its policies and procedures isn't complete.
"That should have been done the next day," the lawyer said. "It seemed to me the policies and procedures would have been tweaked the next day."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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