Granting that the person involved is the one named in the documents, and they are authentic, he has a restricted license to practice, under specific terms. So he is a "practicing doctor". No doubt, the settlement he will receive will ease the pain of having those sordid details from his past broadcast around the world, along with assessments of his alleged poker (and, uh, -him) abilities.
United just dealt him a strong hand.
Would this be a fair assessment of how we got here?
1. At gate open, there had one more passenger than seats, so one volunteer got compensation for a later flight.
2. During boarding, the DH crew shows up.
3. Four more volunteers are sought from on board the aircraft. Three accept. Our doctor inquires, but when he finds out that he won't make it to the office the next day, he declines.
4. A "Computer" selects him, and he refuses to surrender his seat.
-antics ensue-
Just out of curiosity, for those of you who work in the US, how often are already-boarded passengers invited to deplane and take a voucher?
As I see it, the fumble came when #3 didn't work. They couldn't get volunteers, so they followed the procedure they always follow at the gate. The problem is, denying boarding looks very different from ejecting boarded passengers. It also works a lot better. In this case, several people were effectively "in charge", and they all played according to a rulebook that was not written for this case.
For those claiming that emptying a plane will cause chaos, might I point out that ORD is a major hub with some degree of redundancy, and that nobody refuses to leave a plane that isn't going to fly for mechanical reasons? Eat a 30-minute delay, declare a mechanical problem, deplane, have the equipment towed to another gate, cull your pax, and get on with it.