US Airways has apologized after a graphic sexual image was posted on its official Twitter account in response to a customer complaint, in one what may be the most obscene tweets ever shared by a corporate brand.
“We apologize for an inappropriate image recently shared as a link in one of our responses. We’ve removed the tweet and are investigating,” the airline said on its Twitter feed.
The pornographic photo featuring a naked woman and a toy plane was shared Monday on the US Airways Twitter account, which is followed by some 420,000, in response to a customer venting her frustration about service.
In the same tweet, the airline asked the customer to provide her feedback to the customer relations team followed by a link to the explicit image.
The airline deleted the offending tweet after the error had been flagged, about an hour after it had been posted, but not before it was retweeted hundreds of times.
US Airways said an investigation determined the image was initially posted to its Twitter feed by another user and flagged as “inappropriate.”
“Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer. We immediately realized the error and removed our tweet,” the airline said in a prepared statement.
“We deeply regret the mistake and we are currently reviewing our processes to prevent such errors in the future.”
US Airways has merged with American Airlines, which also made headlines for a Twitter controversy on Monday.
A 14-year-old girl was arrested then reportedly released in the Netherlands on suspicion of threatening American Airlines in a tweet on Sunday.
The tweet was posted on Sunday and said it came from an al Qaeda member in Afghanistan named Ibrahim and threatened to "do something really big on June 1."
The account that posted the tweet showed a profile image of a young woman with the nickname “Sarah.” The Twitter account in question has now been deleted.
