This presentation was an assignment for a senior seminar in public relations class at Georgia Southern University. The presentation goes along with a case study analysis research paper completed for a semester project on a public relations conflict management crisis with United Airlines.

1. Flying the Unfriendly Skies
A Case Study Analysis
By: Daisy Farhm

2. Situation Overview
▲ In April 2017, United Airlines received public backlash after a video went viral on social
media of a passenger being forcibly and violently removed from one of their flights.
▲ The Flight was said to be overbooked
▲ The airline staff initially followed protocol and offered passengers compensation if they
were to volunteer to change to an alternative flight, however, not enough people
volunteered.
▲ The flight crew contacted aviation security officers to remove a randomly selected
passenger from the aircraft after they were already seated.

3. Situation Overview (Continued)
▲ The video that surfaced on social media and got national attention from media
outlets, showed him being yanked out of his seat and dragged by his arms through
the aisle of the aircraft. He is visibly bleeding in the video, and is screaming for help.
▲ The video was shared on Facebook and viewed 3.8 million times.
▲ Turns out the flight was not overbooked, and the passenger was able to travel
▲ The passenger endured a concussion, 2 missing teeth, bruising and bleeding

5. Initial Statement
▲ This turned into a public relations disaster because the CEO of United Airlines responded to the public’s
taking no ownership, placing blame on the passenger and the aviation security, and downplaying the
situation by giving a brief, indirect apology.
▲ Oscar Munoz, The CEO of United Airlines, made his first public statement following the incident Monday
afternoon by apologizing only for “overbooking” and having to “re-accommodate” passengers.
▲ He implied that the reason for having to use force was the passenger’s “disruptive” and “belligerent”
behavior.
▲ The public was outraged and boycotted United Airlines.

6. Crisis Management
➢ Crisis Management: a process designed to prevent or lessen the damage a crisis can inflict on an
organization and its stakeholders
➢ Key Actions: put the public first, take responsibility, be accessible and accommodate the media, and
consult communication crisis experts.
➢ Four Sequential Phases: the proactive phase, the strategic phase, the reactive phase, and the recovery
phase.
➢ Munoz’s initial response did not follow the conflict management cycle (or at least missed the proactive
and strategic phase)
➢ Munoz appeared to be overconfident in his decision making and communication skills, and also
appeared to have framing bias.
○ Framing Bias: when managers are influenced by the way a problem is presented to them
○ Munoz did state that he made his original reaction based on integrated programming, as he
thought the flight crew did their job by following established protocol.

7. Objectives for the “Do-Over”
▲ Gain the public's’ trust back
▲ Change the public's’ attitude to be more favorable towards the
airline
▲ Change the public image of United Airlines to be “friendlier”
“When publics express anger in a given conflict situation, the organization
might, instead of responding in kind, consider strategically expressing and conveying
hope, placing emphasis on future actions, rather than past behavior”.
-(Jin, 2010)

8. Image Repair Theory
▲ William Benoit (2018), introduced this theory, and explains that
communication is a “goal-oriented activity” and that “maintaining a
favorable reputation is a key goal of communication.”
▲ Outlines ways to restore an individual, company, or organization’s
reputation after a crisis
▲ Strategies in this theory include: bolstering, denial, avoiding
responsibility, reducing the appearance of offensiveness, corrective
action, mortification, blame shifting, separation, etc.

9. Image Repair Theory Applied
▲ This case meets the qualifications being that the accused is responsible for an offensive action.
▲ After receiving public backlash for his public statement United Airlines CEO made a drastic change in his
approach using Image Restoration Theory strategies such as corrective action and mortification.
▲ Munoz said “It’s never too late to do the right thing” and made a service commitment promising
“customers first”
▲ He offered another apology, this time to the main victim of the incident
▲ He took responsibility for treating the victim poorly and took back putting any blame on him
▲ “This can never—will never—happen again on a United Airlines Flight. That’s my premise and that’s my
promise”

10. Application of Image Repair Theory
(continued)
Munoz promised in the press release…
▲ to reevaluate their policies and their work relationship with law enforcement
▲ force or call in aviation security again unless there is a safety or security reason
▲ they would provide their staff with training programs to better teach employees that
customers come first

12. Texaco Inc. Case Study
▲ This case study can be compared to the Texaco Inc. case study. Texaco faced an Anti-
discrimination lawsuit that lasted two years.
▲ There was public outcry and backlash after several cases of racial discrimination were
presented to the public.
▲ Texaco used mortification, corrective action, and blame shifting tactics. The public statement
from Texaco’s CEO included an apology (mortification) on behalf of “a few bad apples” (blame
shifting), and promised not to tolerate future discrimination (corrective action).

13. Evaluation Part 1:
▲ The United Airlines passenger Dr. David Dao should never have been removed from the flight the way
he was.
▲ The interaction between airline aviation security and Dao would have been avoided if they had handled
the overbooking situation before passengers boarded the flight
▲ The initial response to the public was very weak, delayed, and unsympathetic
▲ Munoz came across as uneducated and unempathetic on the situation when publicly apologizing for
“overbooking” when the flight was in fact not overbooked
▲ The one good thing Munoz did in his initial crisis repair strategies was to send out an email to the staff
addressing the situation and not blowing it off.

14. Evaluation Part 2:
▲ The corrective action worked well as Munoz did allow and volunteer to have communication with key
public by holding press releases and going on talk shows. Hiding and avoiding communication is never
the right course of action in crisis situations if the goal is to repair a business’s reputation.
▲ He also took responsibility for treating the main victim wrongfully and apologized specifically to him,
which he did not initially do.
▲ He also used mortification by admitting responsibility and asking for forgiveness.

15. Question 1: What PR and conflict
management strategies would you have
used initially to ease public backlash and
avoid the negative reaction?

16. Question 2: Do you feel as though United
Airlines CEO redeemed the reputation by
saying “it’s never too late to do the right
thing”?

17. Question 3: Can you think of any cases
similar to this one?
-can be airline related or just an instance where someone was late to take
ownership for mistakes, but eventually did.

18. My Opinion
▲ I believe the severity of the public relations crisis could have been avoided by
doing several things differently, but most significantly by having a stronger
initial public service announcement. Implementing the strategies used in the
do-over to strategically plan an effective statement would have reduced the
backlash and public attention and the situation would have been just news
rather than a controversial and memorable crisis to go down in public relations
history.