Comparing The Legal And Ethical Issues With The Contract Of Carriage

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On April 9, 2017, passenger Dr. David Dao was ticketed and boarded on a plane to fly on United flight #3411 from Chicago, IL to Louisville, KY. This was the last flight of the day between the two cities. After the flight was fully boarded and all passengers were in their seats, United’s gate agents were approached by crewmembers that were instructed to board the flight. To accommodate the crew, the agents began seeking volunteers to get off the flight and offered passengers up to $800 in compensation. While some did voluntarily deplane, United needed four more seats so a supervisor randomly selected four passengers to be “denied boarding” and removed from the flight. One of the passengers selected was Dr. Dao. He was determined to stay in his seat due to patients he had to see at a hospital in Louisville the …show more content…

Videos of the incident quickly surfaced the internet and showing a visibly injured and bloodied Dr. Dao screaming. Although there has been no lawsuit yet, when being asked whether there will be one, Dr. Dao’s lawyer responded, “Yeah, probably” as there are many legal issues with this incident. There are three key legal and ethical issues with this flight: breach of contract, assault, and utilitarianism. Whenever someone purchases a flight ticket they are agreeing to the airline’s Contract of Carriage. The contract dictates when a passenger can be denied boarding and refused transport. However, in this case the flight was not overbooked and the passenger already had his ticket scanned and boarded the flight. So, the rules on denied boarding would not apply and nowhere does the contract state that United can de-board you because it wants to fly its employees. United breached its contract and I believe will lose the lawsuit for this reason. Next, Dr. Dao may have grounds to sue under various civil rights acts such as assault. There are many videos of the incident and witnesses which make it clear that he was assaulted. Some people believe that

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