Wearing black armbands in memory of the North Sea helicopter crash, it was to signify a half in which the Terrors could do nothing right and one in which Hibs will be frustrated that they did not take greater advantage.
With only two minutes on the clock, the Tangerines plans were thrown in the air when a crunching tackle from Rob Jones left Jon Daly on the ground and the striker was stretchered off.
Worse was to come as, unfortunately, substitute Warren Feeney gave the ball way with his first touch to Colin Nish, who blasted in a 30-yard free kick high into the net in the sixth minute.
It was two, four minutes later with an absolute gift from Prince Bauben and Garry Kenneth.
Comical defending between the two presented Nish with the easiest of tasks to stab the ball into the net from only six yards out.
It was almost a hat-trick for the Hibs striker in the 16th minute when his left-foot 12-yard volley was brilliantly tipped over by Lukasz Zaluska.
The troubles continued for the Tangerines with a series of unforced errors and Kenneth, in particular, was having a dreadful time.
The big defender gave Nish a free header in the 23rd minute which really should have been punished and then O'Brien stole the ball of him in the 30th minute and dashed to the byline and cut back for Steven Fletcher to miss the ball by inches.
United's woeful half was summed up in the 31st minute when Chris Hogg brought Feeney down in the box and Craig Conway's penalty was wonderfully saved by ex-Tangerine Grzegorz Szamotulski.
The second period opened with an inviting cross from Conway volleyed past the post by Lee Wilikie from only six yards out.
But it was game on in the 53rd minute when Kenneth dragged United back in with a six-yard header from a superb Paul Dixon cross.
This transformed the game as United went on to completely dominate possession only to spurn chance after chance.
But in the second minute of injury time, sub David Goodwillie was on the end of almighty goalmouth scramble to tuck the ball away to snatch a point.