United CEO Apologizes To Violently Bumped Passenger After Blaming Him For Disturbance

United Continental Holdings Inc UAL CEO Oscar Munoz, under fire after a screaming and bloodied physician was dragged off an overbooked flight, finally apologized to the man on Tuesday after earlier blaming him for the whole mess.

A Different Tune

In a message to employees, Munoz said:

“Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way.”

The statement, posted on the United website, was a far cry from the email he sent employees on Monday night. The email, obtained by CNBC, clearly blamed David Dao for the disruption.

Munoz said Dao "raised his voice and refused to comply," and each time he was asked to leave "he refused and became more and more disruptive and belligerent."

Crew members "were left with no choice but to call Chicago Aviation Security Officers to assist in removing the customer from the flight," Munoz wrote, and at one point the passenger "continued to resist — running back onto the aircraft in defiance of both our crew and security officials."

Market, China Reacts

Shares were down more than 4 percent in early trading on Tuesday as outrage over the violent removal of a man identified as Dao from a United jet preparing to depart Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Sunday. They rebounded slightly in later trading.

Video of the man, his face bloodied, screaming as he was dragged off the overbooked flight, went viral in China where it received hundreds of millions of views and triggered calls for a boycott of United Airlines.