United Airlines may have just started a PR monster that is about to hit the airlines industry head on–and it finds itself right in the middle of the storm. With airline regulations already in the news for terroristic threats (read: Al Qaeda has possibly found a way to make laptop bombs undetectable by metal detectors), the airline industry may just be having a tsunami of criticism and overall skepticism of its policies waiting on the other side.

On April 9, 2017, Dr. David Dao and his wife boarded a flight to Louisville from Chicago’s O’Hare airport, when suddenly airline personnel come onboard the flight. Announcing the flight was overbooked, the airline asked for four volunteers to get off the plane and to board a later flight, offering $800 ticket vouchers in addition to the free plane ticket later. With no one volunteering, Dao, his wife, and two other customers were told to get off the plane to make room for four airplane cabin members instead. Dao, concerned he would not reach home in time for his medical appointments, refused. What ensued was a gruesome battle by security to forcefully remove him from the plane, with security somehow slamming his head against a headrest. Consequently, the security leisurely and almost in a casual fashion, drag a bloodied and unconscious Dao through the aisles and off the plane.

There are several factors in play here, and none of which indicate that any blame should be assigned to Dao. First of all (and this is a gripe that many have with the airline industry), the airline industry needs to stop overbooking. In 2016, half a million customers were bumped off planes due to overbooking. It is the airline’s responsibility to keep track of seats being filled up and to tell the customer when an aircraft is full. After all, a customer pays an exorbitant price for a plane ticket, and their future plans are based on whenever the plane lands. For Dao, his plane was landing just in time for him to see his patients and having to get off the plane would cause a failure for him professionally. This relates to the failure of the airline to allocate seats properly.

Secondly, on what basis were the four customers chosen to get off the plane? Of course the airline says they were chosen at random, but it truly may not have been random for the person who chose the people to get off the plane. It may have been racially motivated, gender motivated, or really motivated by anything. No proper protocol was followed to choose who would get off the plane, which itself is a massive red flag. United Airlines attempts to justify their actions by saying that they did offer a free plane ticket for a later flight and a $1000 voucher for another flight, but clearly their entire logic is at fault here. United’s justification is equal to a parent saying sorry to a child for not taking them to the park after promising the child, and yet getting mad at the child for not accepting the apology. Clearly there is a lack of accountability for United Airlines, which didn’t even apologize to the customer in their public statement. “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” said CEO Oscar Munoz. Forget your “re-accommodation” Mr. CEO, you put a man in bodily harm for your negligence and you refuse to even apologize?

Clearly United Airlines is facing a massive investigation (and probably lawsuits) heading its way, and until accountability, the company will be under fire. The stock price has already dropped, and the company’s app store rating went from a four star rating to a one star rating. Social media is absolutely enraged, and just imagine how severe the issue will become once Mr. Dao starts talking about his version of the story. It’s officially damage control time for United Airlines, with no time to waste.