We criticize airlines for overbooking practices. We blast them when they occasionally run into problems, like when too many passengers show up. Yet, most doctors do exactly the same thing. However, no doctor has ever offered me a $400 voucher and a free lunch for making me wait too long.
By now, you’ve probably seen the shaky cell phone footage showing a screaming United Airlines passenger dragged down mid-aisle and forcibly removed from a flight yesterday.
The passenger, claiming to be a doctor, was asked to give up his seat by the airline’s staff after it was discovered the short flight was overbooked. There are some additional background details pertaining to this incident, but I won’t get into them here.
After watching the video, the popular reaction has been scathing criticism targeted at United Airlines for the way they handled this matter. Sure, airlines are giant fuck buses with wings. It’s easy to understand why so many people sympathize with a fellow passenger, versus the big bad airline doing mean stuff to a helpless man simply wanting to fly back home. Indeed, air travel has become an agonizing experience. Airline service sucks. When we fly, we’re treated like helpless pawns being run through a cattle chute.
Nonetheless, let’s also agree that none of this would have happened if Doctor Drama Queen would simply have behaved like a grown-up instead of throwing a temper tantrum like a 2-year-old child.
Hey, Doc — this isn’t a Vietnam War protest. Your resistance isn’t an act of valor. Being forcibly dragged away isn’t heroic civil disobedience. It’s stupidity. It’s selfishness. It’s a petty display of entitlement and exaggerated self-importance made considerably worse by the rampant conceit that doctors are somehow entitled to special privileges wherever they go. Well, I have news for you, Doc.
[Update: “Dr. David Dao lied to the airline crew. He’s a bold-faced liar. “Dr. Dao” had no patients waiting for him the next morning back in Louisville, since his medical license was suspended in January. He’s currently under indictment for peddling opioids. So — pending a conviction — he’s probably a dope peddler]
So, we criticize airlines for their overbooking practices and blast them when they occasionally run into problems when too many passengers show up. Yet, most doctors do exactly the same thing. However, no doctor has ever offered me a $400 voucher and a free lunch for making me wait too long.
Oh, and by the way — he must not be much of a doctor if he’s flying coach. But I digress.
United Airlines might get sued over this and be tempted to settle. Let’s hope not. Instead, Doctor Drama Queen should be criminally prosecuted to the full extent of the law for interfering with the operation of an aircraft. He not only caused a scene. His actions also created a needless delay for everyone else on that flight. How selfish of him. He certainly wouldn’t have protested someone else getting plucked from the flight for many of the reasons people travel — including families reuniting, a prospective job interview, or a funeral. No, this was all about him.
Admittedly, this is a case of very bad timing for United Airlines, particularly after the embarrassing (overtly sexist) dress code incident a few weeks ago. However, one miscue doesn’t entail perpetual and comprehensive guilt across an entire industry when it comes to dealing with passengers. Sometimes the airline is wrong. Other times the passenger is wrong. In this case, Doctor Drama Queen was wrong.
Lock him up.
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