Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

David Dao, the doctor who was seen being dragged off a United Airlines jet this month in videos that sparked widespread outrage, has reached a settlement with the airline for an undisclosed amount, his lawyers said on Thursday.

The April 9 episode had stoked the fears and frustrations of airplane passengers everywhere and became a public relations nightmare for United.

On Thursday, both sides welcomed what they hoped would be the end of the ordeal.

“Mr. Munoz said he was going to do the right thing, and he has,” Thomas A. Demetrio, one of Dr. Dao’s lawyers, said of Oscar Munoz, United’s chief executive. “In addition, United has taken full responsibility for what happened on Flight 3411, without attempting to blame others, including the City of Chicago. For this acceptance of corporate accountability, United is to be applauded.”

Late last week I flew United from San Francisco to London. As we got on the plane one of the other passengers gave a box of chocolates to the flight staff as an act of kindness and support for the awful week they’ve had.

Nearly 300 stories have been published by the leading news orgs in the US and UK about the incident.

Unsurprisingly, our analysis shows sentiment of the coverage is almost exclusively negative.

Those stories have earned nearly 1 million shares on Facebook in aggregate. That’s a lot of unwanted exposure for the company. It surpassed United’s trouble with leggings from the previous week about four times over....