One of the police officers who forcibly removed a United Airlines customer in an incident that became a public relations disaster for the carrier said "minimal but necessary force" was used after the passenger acted aggressively, according to an incident report.
Video recorded by other passengers showed David Dao, a 69-year-old doctor, being dragged down the aisle with blood on his face after refusing to give up his seat on a flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky on April 9.
In the incident report, which was released by city authorities on Monday and posted online by the Chicago Tribune, aviation police officer Mauricio Rodriguez said Dao became combative after he and two other officers tried to persuade the doctor to leave the plane.
According to the incident report, Dao told the officers: "I'm not leaving this flight that I paid money for. I don't care if I get arrested."
An officer identified in the report as James Long then tried to get Dao out of his seat, at which point the passenger "started swinging his arms up and down fast and violently," Rodriguez said in the report.
Long lost control of Dao as he swung, causing Dao to fall and hit his mouth on the arm rest. Long then "assisted the subject by using minimal but necessary force" to get him off the aircraft, the report quoted Rodriguez as saying.
A spokesman for Demetrio told the Wall Street Journal that the police version of events outlined in the report was "utter nonsense. Consider the source."
Chicago's aviation department on Monday told the Journal that the three officers involved remained on leave and that it was conducting an investigation.
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