The US Airways was forced into a humiliating apology on Monday after an obscene pornographic image was posted on their Twitter page.
The American airline tweeted the explicit image in response to an unhappy customer by mistake, the Guardian notes. But the firm kept the image on the post nearly for an hour before it was removed, and by that time, the image was retweeted thousands of times and invited a spate of equally obscene jokes and inappropriate humor from twitarati.
The pornographic image, which displayed a naked women and a toy plane being placed somewhere it shouldn't, was reportedly included when the US Airways' PR team was responding to a customer who complained about her delayed flight from North Carolina to Oregon. The picture was posted with the message: "We welcome feedback, Elle, If your travel is complete, you can detail here for review and follow up."
The image quickly went viral, inviting hundreds of spin-off jokes and ultimately, a humiliating apology from US airways
We apologize for an inappropriate image recently shared as a link in one of our responses. We've removed the tweet and are investigating.
— US Airways (@USAirways) April 14, 2014
The airline has 422,000 followers on Twitter.
The slip came just hours after a 14-year-old Dutch girl was arrested after she tweeted a terror threat as a joke to American Airlines. Monday's tweet by the US airways, however, has become the butt of all jokes as it has remained in trend for most of Tuesday. One responder in Facebook went to the extent of saying, "That is where MH370 went".
Following are some of the funniest responses to the obscene tweet:
Oh man, US Airways does not mess around. They will fly planes ANYWHERE for customers. — Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) April 15, 2014
US airways just fired their social media interns. All of them. Forever.
— Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) April 15, 2014
I'm not flying US Airways till I'm married. — Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) April 14, 2014
Dear @USAirways, just blame it on Heartbleed. Everyone will believe you.
— Mat Honan (@mat) April 14, 2014
.@USAirways wins #PulitzerPrize in the photography category. — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) April 14, 2014
Personally,I am very happy US airway parked at Gate 1 instead of gate 2. #usairways #USAirwaysPicOfAPlaneInHerHoohoo @USAirways
— DHEERAJ AGRAWAL (@docdheeru) April 15, 2014
Now I know the difference between US Airways and Virgin Airways. — Andrew Luck's Head (@AndrewLucksHead) April 15, 2014
US Airways announces non-stop service to Uranus.
— Ashley (@ashleycrem) April 15, 2014
The key to a great business is all about product placement...... Am I right @USAirways ? — Strombone (@strombone1) April 14, 2014
US Airways announces all flights will arrive in terminal V. #Zing
— Bob Kevoian (@bobkevoian) April 14, 2014
Photo credit: Twitter/ US Airways
(Ed: AJ)
