U.S. Airways: We’re Not Firing Staffer Who Tweeted Toy Plane Porn

Some much more innocent toy planes that were not involved. (JoelZimmer)

Some very innocent toy planes that were not involved. (JoelZimmer)

This week got off to a hilarious start if you like corporate social media gaffes. US Airways is awfully embarrassed about the incident where they responded to a customer complaint with a photograph of a nude woman posed with a model plane lodged in her jetway. Contrary to our predictions, the airline says that posting the photo was “an honest mistake” and no one is getting fired. Someone might want to throw away that toy plane, though.

As a classy establishment, we aren’t going to post the blurred or un-blurred versions of the photo in question: there are plenty of other sites that have preserved the image, and you can satisfy your curiosity within a few clicks.

The airline told the New York Daily News that this was all a pretty innocent mistake. A spokesman explained to the New York Daily News that a random Twitter user had publicly tweeted the image at the airline, and one of the company Twitterers copied the URL in order to report the offending image. In a horrific computer clipboard mixup, they added the picture’s address to a tweet sent to a frustrated customer instead.

The US Airways spokesperson says that the person responsible will not be fired for the mixup: they were originally out to protect the company from being associated with such filth.

US Airways’ pornographic tweet was ‘an honest mistake’ by employee, won’t lead to firing: airline [New York Daily News]

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