A stowaway scorpion unwittingly added to the public relations party for United this week after it fell from an overhead compartment and stung a passenger, CNBC reported Thursday.
United confirmed the scorpion incident which happened Sunday on a flight from Houston to Calgary.
CNBC said that the flight crew was in contact with a physician and helped the victim, identified as Richard Bell, until the plane arrived in Calgary.
Bell reportedly had non-life threatening injuries and was attended to by medical personnel in Calgary, an United spokesperson told CNBC.
The news of the scorpion sting could not have come at a more coincidental time than this week, days after a United passenger was forcibly dragged from his flight to Chicago.
Video of the incident, reported by WHAS-TV in Louisville, caused outrage over social media and continues to be a PR nightmare for the company.
David Dao, 69, is still in the hospital for a concussion, broken nose and other injuries suffered as police officers pulled him from his seat after Dao refused to give it away to accommodate United employees.
United CEO Oscar Munoz has since publicly apologized for the way the situation was handled.
