United Continental reversed course and issued an unconditional apology for the treatment of a passenger violently removed from an overbooked flight as the US carrier fought to regain its footing in a global public relations crisis which has damaged its reputation from the US to China.

Only hours after defending the actions of staff in the incident, in which a screaming Asian-American doctor was injured as he was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight on Sunday, United CEO Oscar Munoz issued a message to customers saying “I’m sorry. We will fix this”.

He called the incident, which has generated social media condemnation from around the globe, “horrific” and offered his “deepest apologies” for it. “Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologise to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way,” he said.