David Dao, the United Airlines passenger who was forcibly removed from a Chicago flight, has begun legal action against the company with an emergency request filed in an Illinois state court on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, lawyers for Dao are asking the court to require United and the City of Chicago, which runs O’Hare International Airport, to “preserve video recordings and other evidence related to the incident.”
The request includes “surveillance videos, cockpit voice recordings, passenger and crew lists, and other materials related to United Flight 3411,” the site reports.
Dao, 69, was forcibly removed from Flight 3411 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday. Video of his bloody face and Dao’s violent removal by security officers has since gone viral, sparking an outcry across the country.
In response to the backlash, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz appeared on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday and said he felt “shame” when he saw the viral video of airport police dragging a bloodied passenger from one of his company’s flights.
“This will never happen again,” Munoz said, going on to describe the situation as a “system failure.”
“We have not provided our frontline supervisors and managers and individuals with the proper procedures that would allow them to use their common/”>common sense,” he said. “They all have an incredible amount of common/”>common sense and this issue could have been solved by that.”
The appearance on “GMA” was preceded by an internal memo sent by Munoz in which he described Dao as “belligerent” and “disruptive.”