Man dragged off plane is physician with troubled past: Report

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A spokesman for the airline insisted that employees had no choice but to contact authorities to remove the man. (Audra D. Bridges via AP)

The man left bloodied in a shocking incident aboard a United airlines flight that went viral has been identified by the Daily Mail as Dr. David Dao.

The 69-year-old married, grandfather of five is an internal medicine specialist who lives in Kentucky with his wife, a pediatrician.  Four of his children are physicians.

Dao, according to the Courier-Journal, has a troubled past.

The Vietnamese-American was convicted of drug-related offenses after an undercover investigation by the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure last June. Dao was allegedly involved in fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was sexually involved with a patient who used to work for his practice and assisted police in building a case against him.

He was placed on five years of supervised probation in January 2005. The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure permitted Dao to resume practicing medicine in 2015 under certain conditions, reported the Courier-Journal.

Video posted to social media of Dao being dragged along the center aisle of an overbooked flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to make remove for four United crew members on Sunday night caused outrage on Monday.

Dao's seat and that of three others was randomly selected after no one would voluntarily disembark. He is heard screaming as the security guard pulls him off.   Two uniformed police officers trail behind.

The incident has turned into a public relations nightmare for United.

After apologizing to the other passengers aboard the plane and not Dr. Dao, United CEO Oscar Munoz sent an email to employees that was made public. In it, he blames the "disruptive" and "belligerent"  passenger.

Chicago's aviation department placed one of its security officers on leave for not following standard operating procedures, but did not clarify which of the men seen in the video he is, the AP reported. The department said it did not condone the officers' actions.