US Airways has apologized for mistakenly tweeting a link to a pornographic photo yesterday in response to a woman's complaint that her flight was delayed.
Twitter user "@ElleRafter" was sitting on a US Airways flight that had been grounded for some time Monday when she tweeted that she was unhappy.
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In a since-deleted response, US Airways tweeted back, "We welcome feedback, Elle. If your travel is complete, you can detail it here for review and follow-up." That's when things spun out of control. Instead of providing a link to a US Airways customer service page, the airline posted a link to a site hosting a pornographic image.
The image showed a woman and a model airplane in a compromising position.
The company left the tweet and photo up for roughly an hour, at which time Twitter exploded, sending many lewd hashtags into the Trending Topics bar and completely eclipsing the announcement of the year's Pulitzer Prize winners. US Airways then realized what had happened, and immediately apologized.
It was not clear whether the link was included intentionally or accidentally, but @ElleRafter did tweet the following day that the metaphorical possibilities of the message, whether intentional or not, were on her mind.
Many websites, like
Mashable, published lists of the funniest jokes and responses to the incident, not all of which are appropriate for all audiences.
US Airways is investigating the incident.
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