United CEO apologizes for ‘horrific event’

After two days of conflicting corporate statements, falling stocks and swelling outrage, United Airlines entered full-scale mea culpa mode Tuesday afternoon, as its chief executive announced an internal investigation into a Sunday-evening flight in which a man was dragged violently from his seat so a crew member could have it - not that the flight was overbooked as initially stated.

United stocks dropped as much as 6.3 percent in pre-market trading Tuesday, and closed the day having lost some $255 million in market value, according to news reports.

'I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight,” United CEO Oscar Munoz wrote in a statement. 'I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way.”

'We are going to fix what's broken so this never happens again,” Munoz wrote - promising a report on the beleaguered airline's policies on calling police, transferring crew and 'how we handle oversold situations.”

It was the latest in a flurry of attempts from the airline to defuse a public relations crisis.

Hours earlier, according to USA Today, a United spokesperson had backed off the companies initial claims that the flight was 'overbooked” - rather than disrupted to transport off-duty crew.

And before that, Monday, Munoz had defended his employees, saying the passenger, who refused to give up his seat, was belligerent. The battered and bloodied man was dragged back to the terminal at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

One of the officers involved in the incident was placed on leave pending an investigation. But international outrage continued Tuesday, with United's stock price falling, memes exploding and disturbing videos of the incident shared across the world.

The White House also weighed in. Press secretary Sean Spicer called the videos 'troubling” but dismissed calls for a federal investigation into what he said should be 'a very simple local matter.” The U.S. Department of Transportation also said it was looking into it.

In China, where United bills itself as a top carrier, tens of millions of people have read or shared a report that the passenger claimed he was targeted for being Chinese. Many there are now echoing calls in the United States for a boycott.