United Airlines wastes priceless opportunity to avoid PR debacle

THERE never seems to be a dull moment at United Airlines these days. Last month, the American carrier was in the news for barring two teenage girls from boarding a flight.

The reason was a baffling one: A gate agent, who claimed she was merely adhering to the airline's dress code, deemed the leggings that the girls were wearing to be inappropriate. The backlash that the incident predictably caused, however, was nothing compared to what the beleaguered company had to endure this week.

On Sunday, United forcibly removed a passenger from an overbooked flight that was about to depart Chicago for Louisville, Kentucky. The man, later identified as 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor David Dao, was hauled from his seat and dragged off the plane against his will. Predictably, scores of other passengers taped the ordeal on their smartphones, and the photos and videos went viral around the world within hours.