EXTRA: Is United Airlines the Wizard of Oz in telling us to 'Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain?'

This is the image that we’re all expected to forget about.

Should we pretend it didn't happen?

The sight of David Dao, a Kentucky doctor, who didn’t want to be removed from the Chicago-to-Louisville flight he paid in full for, thereby causing the flight crew to call in the cops to have him forcibly removed.

MANY PEOPLE ON board that flight felt compelled to pull out the cheap video cameras installed on their portable telephones to record the moment back on April 9. Which is the only reason we have so much visual evidence of the way the doctor was roughed up. Although I wonder how many thought they were merely shooting some “crazy video” they could share with friends for a laugh.

Otherwise, I suspect that United Airlines, which had an agreement with the subcarrier that was actually running that particular flight from O’Hare International Airport to a lesser aviation market would not be so eager to “pay up.”

Dao suffered a broken nose, a concussion and had two teeth knocked out from the incident, but there are those people who want to believe he somehow brought this incident on himself. They are the ones who are going to be ranting and raging that it’s an injustice the airline paid Dao a cent and they should have fought for their “good name.”

Although I have trouble accepting that line of logic, largely because of the reality of the way these cases are settled.

FOR SURE ENOUGH, it was announced Thursday that the airline reached a legal settlement with Dao. His threat of a lawsuit will go away. He promises to not take any action that would be perceived as negative against United Airlines. In fact, he promises not to talk about the incident any more.

The airline won’t say how much money they wound up paying to him, and, of course, there is the obligatory statement by which the airline says it admits to no wrongdoing with regards to its conduct from the incident.

That really is what is most important to the airline. They don’t want any kind of written record being built up indicating they screwed up or did anything wrong.

They probably want the impression being created that Dao (or anyone who files a lawsuit) is just out for money, and that if they were really wronged, they would not have been so quick to take a cash settlement.

IF ANYTHING, THE most significant action out of this whole affair is that people now have a better idea of what airline policies are with regards to kicking people off of flights – which apparently is something they believe is their right to do.

You don’t have to be a threat or misbehaving to get the boot. I still think I’d probably react in a similar manner to Dao if I had been in his situation – needing to get somewhere by a certain time and paying good money for my ticket!

But I’m sure the airline thinks they are buying silence on the issue – which I’m sure they hope now fades away into the depths of our memories so that by year’s end, we’ll have forgotten that United ever did anything so crass. They’ll regard him the way the mighty Wizard of Oz wanted us to view that man behind the green curtain.

And if anybody takes the time to look up Dao, they’re more likely to find those sordid stories about his questionable practices as a doctor or his gambling habits than about anything that actually happened to him on board United Express flight 3411.

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EXTRA: United mess – Oh Good grief!

I suppose it’s only inevitable that if Chicago is going to be a hub (to listen to us say it, we’re THE hub) of the nation’s transportation, that stupid incidents involving transit are going to occur in our city.

Such as the recent incident where a passenger on board a United Airlines-affiliated flight was removed by force from the seat he fully paid for just so airline employees waiting for a flight on standby could be accommodated.

WE GET THE distinct displeasure of having airport cops at O’Hare be the ones who got to bloody-up a doctor who was trying to get back to home in Kentucky, where he was actually expected back soon for medical reasons. Heck, even President Donald Trump was offended by such behavior, and our very own Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., is talking about Congressional hearings into the airlines’ conduct.

Because the doctor was not exactly someone who could afford to wait for another flight just because someone with the airline oversold the number of tickets intended for that specific Chicago to Louisville, Ky., flight.

Which for me is a key factor to comprehending this incident. Someone paying for a flight has a very serious expectation of getting to his/her intended destination by a scheduled time. I don’t comprehend where a pilot (the so-called captain of his airplane) gets a right to have them removed. Then again, I don’t see where a paying customer has to justify their reason for needing a flight. The airlines’ apology was cheap!

I suspect if I had been in that same situation, my reaction to being removed from the flight by force would have been remarkably similar to that of Dr. David Dao.

AND AS FOR those people who are taking seriously the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper report about the doctor’s criminal record (some drug-related offenses more than a decade ago), keep in mind that I’m going to take more seriously the outrage amongst people in China who are using the Internet to contemplate a United Airlines boycott.

They couldn’t help but notice what actually was my initial impression when I first saw the video – they picked out a “Chinese” guy to bump from the plane. It has me wondering how long until this incident becomes the equivalent of the Asian woman who claims recently she was denied a ride by one of those private car services because of her ethnicity.

My guess is that I’ll never be able to comprehend how an airline employee could have a paying customer bumped. Most businesses are like back when I worked at a suburban-based Carson, Pirie, Scott department store and we workers were told to keep our cars parked a certain distance from the store so that customers could have the prime parking lot spots.

By United Airlines logic, I could have had a paying customer’s car towed so I could have his spot, then perhaps also blamed for any damage the tow truck caused while sloppily removing the vehicle.

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