For those of you who haven't been reading the news, United Airlines hit the motherload of PR nightmares on Tuesday. As the story goes, United had a flight on Sunday that was set to go from Chicago to to Louisville that was completely booked. While this would normally be a good thing for the company, they still had four airline employees that needed to get to Louisville on that flight.

According to passengers onboard, there were no indications that anything was wrong. An airline employee then came on board and told the passengers that four people would need to give up their seats for the other employees. They gave the incentive of an $800 voucher, but still nobody volunteered.

Four passengers were then selected at random, the employee stating that the flight wouldn't take off until the passengers left. Three of them left without incident, but the fourth passenger, Dr. David Dao, refused. Tyler Bridges, a passenger on the flight said that Dr. Dao told flight attendants, “I’m not getting off the plane. I’m a doctor; I have to see patients in the morning.”

This is when things got ugly. Bridges said as the employee turned to leave, Dr. Dao started getting angry, saying that he was being singled out because he was Chinese. From videos I've seen, it seems that Dr. Dao is then pulled out of his seat by three security guards, smacking his face on the armrest on the way out. The security guards then drag him down the aisle and out of the plane. A few minutes later, Dr. Dao is seen running back into the plane saying "I need to go home".

As of Tuesday night, Dr. Dao is still receiving medical treatment for his injuries at a Chicago-area hospital.

As a public relations student I can't believe how terribly United Airlines handled this situation. While they did announce the "overbooking" before people got onto the plane, offering $400 for anyone who gave up their seats, they should've waited until the problem was solved before boarding. Trying to get people to comply, or trying to physically remove someone from a small space like an airplane is a lot harder than not letting them on in the first place.

Their crisis communication skills were just as bad after the incident. United continues to issue statements from different people saying different things, which makes the airline seem like they have no idea what happened, and that they have no solid internal communication. In their original statement they said the plane was overbooked, but in another statement spokesperson Jonathan Guerin said, "all 70 seats on United Express Flight 3411 were filled, but the plane was not overbooked as the airline previously reported."

For me, it seems as though it's going to take a while for United to gain their credibility back, especially since this isn't the first negative incident they've had in the past month. At the end of March, they refused to let two young girls onto the plane because they were wearing leggings. While the section they were sitting in did have a business-attire dress code, these girls were about 10 or 11. Leggings ARE business-attire for kids of that age.

A man who paid a pretty penny to be able to sit in first class was instructed to move to economy, "They told me they needed the seat for somebody more important who came at the last minute - they said they have a priority list and this other person was higher on the list than me." He was then threatened with handcuffs and forced to move to economy, where he was placed in the middle of a married couple who argued the entire time-on a flight from LA to Hawaii.

I don't fly all that often, but I will definitely think twice before ever booking with United. If I did book with them, I would be worried that I wouldn't make it to my destination, or wouldn't be allowed on the plane at all. Use your own discretion when choosing flights, but as Southwest Airlines (unfortunately fake) new slogan says;