As if United Airlines needs another public relations nightmare—in April, Dr. David Dao was injured and sued United after he was dragged off a plane after refusing to give up his seat—an incident that allegedly unfolded May 19 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport is making the rounds on social media. In case you missed it, here’s what happened to Dao.


So what happened last Friday?

Henry Amador-Batten, a Durham resident and founder of the gay father advocacy organization DADsquared, told the INDY he was returning to the Triangle on a United flight after a two-week trip to Puerto Rico that culminating in him burying his father. He was traveling with his five-year-old son, Ben—and both the father and son were “exhausted” after spending several days caring for their dying loved one. They fell asleep.

“Ben was really tired. He just got on that plane and got hisblue blanket out—like he always does when we travel—and he just got himself comfortable next to me and fell asleep. And I was in and out of napping,” Amador-Batten told the INDY.

After just more than a hour, the plane landed at RDU.

“The captain came out of the cockpit and came to the speakerand said, ‘Hey everybody. Thanks for flying. You’ve been a great group. There’s a bit of a situation going on at the gate, so we can’t let anybody deboard yet,’” Amador-Batten said.

The man had no idea that he was, in fact, “the situation.”

“When Ben and I finally got to the exit of the plane, the crew didn’t look at me but when I turned to my right, I noticed there were a lot of police there. … Then, as we started to walk up the ramp, the police all came up
behind us,” Amador-Batten said. “Ben said, ‘Daddy. There are a lot of policemen.’ But I’m so stupid that I still didn’t realize that we were the situation.”

Moments later, one of the officers asked the father and son to follow him.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry to say this but there was an allegation from the flight that one of the flight attendants saw your hand too close to your son’s genitals,” Amador-Batten said. “At first, I didn’t say anything. I was just stunned. I’m pretty sure I kept repeating, ‘What?’ Then they asked me, ‘Are you his guardian? Who are you to this child?’ I said, ‘I’m his dad.’”

The hour that followed was stressful for the father, who worried that such a serious allegation could bring consequences with it. But after he proved Ben was, in fact his son, the two ultimately left RDU and returned to Durham with Amador-Batten’s husband, Joel, who took to Facebook when the family got home.
“This is not how anyone deserves to be treated,” he wrote. “This is not something that should have happened in front of my son. This is not something that anyone should have to worry about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not like the looks of them.”

Here’s Joel’s complete post, from the DADsquared Facebook page:

The following day, the family hired attorney Ken Padowitz, who told the INDY his client would be “vigorously” pursuing justice. He also spoke with a representative from United who he says asked him to keep the story out of the press because the company had been having a rough go of it since the Dao incident.

“It was a woman. Her name was Pat. And she was lovely—verygood at what she does. She was sympathetic and shared a story about how her husband almost lost her children,” he said. “It was obvious that it was her job to make us go away. She even said, she literally asked if we wouldn’t mind doing her a favor and keeping this low key … because [United] was getting a lot of bad press right now. That was literally part of the apology conversation. I couldn’t believe it. She was on speaker and my husband threw his hands up and started cursing. … I was like, ‘Are you serious?’”

Calls to United and RDU have not yet been returned, but the airline provided a statement to CNN:

“In this instance, the crew believed it was appropriate to ask authorities to meet the plane and interview the customer,” United said in the statement. “After speaking with the customer, authorities determined that no further action was necessary. Our customers should always be treated with the utmost respect and we have followed up with our customer to apologize for the misunderstanding.”