Chief executive Oscar Munoz said: "The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment".
A video released on social media showed that a bloodied passenger was dragged off a United Express flight by the aviation security officers, after he refused to give up his seat.
"That is not who our family at United (Airlines) is", he said.
Aninda Sadhukhan visited his shredder to dispose of his United MileagePlus Explorer card with Chase Bank on Monday night after he canceled the account. He also promised that United will never again use law enforcement to remove a passenger in a similar situation.
Munoz is scrambling to contain the damage to the carrier's reputation and vowed to reassess policies for seeking volunteers to give up their seats, for handling oversold flights and for partnering with airport authorities.
Mr Munoz said a review into how United deals with flights which are overbooked would be reviewed and the conclusions of this review would be published by the end of the month. One of the men grabs the passenger, who screams as he is yanked out of his seat and pulled down the aisle.
A group of senators have signed a letter to Munoz requesting further information about the airline's procedures for forcibly removing a passenger. "Airlines should resolve these common overbooking issues prior to boarding". "That's on me. I have to fix that and I think that's something that we can do".
When the video of the incident initially garnered attention earlier this week, Munoz acknowledged it was "upsetting", but also called the passenger "belligerent".
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"It's not so much what I thought, it's what I felt", he told ABC. When asked his reaction to seeing the footage, Munoz said "shame" was among the words that came to mind.
By this time, one of the officers then tells him they will use force to get him off if needed. "You saw us at a bad moment".
Under current law, airlines are allowed to overbook flights and bump passengers against their will.
"I don't think we need to have additional legislation to try to control how the airlines run their business in this space", Bastian said.
Munoz added, "The first thing is to apologize to Dr. Dao, his family, the passengers on his flight", he said.
Resigning from his CEO role isn't something Munoz has considered because of this incident, he said.
"I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right", he said.
He added: "We'll communicate the results of our review by 30 April".
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