Lessons from a flight gone wrong
It’s the stuff corporate nightmares are made of. The video of Dr. David Dao being dragged off United Express Flight 3411 on April 9, 2017, his face bloodied, quickly went viral. People (read: potential customers) questioned why a passenger who was already seated and held a proper boarding pass would be forcibly removed to make space for an airline employee.
Social media feeds were swamped with bitter commentary. Ad parodies included the taglines “We beat our competitors … not our customers” and “The only things we pull out of the plane are your two free checked bags.” Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen DeGeneres and other entertainers had a field day. Down the road, the incident is likely to become a business school case study about how to turn a routine situation into a crisis.
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