US Airways Tweets Pornographic Image to Customer

US Airways apologized Monday for tweeting a pornographic image to a customer.

The image included a naked model and a toy airplane in a graphic pose. It was tweeted to a customer who had complained to the airlines for a delay with her flight from North Carolina to Oregon. The text of the tweet was routine customer service:

“We welcome feedback, Elle. If your travel is complete, you can detail here for review and follow up.”

The image included with the text, however, did not include travel details, but the now infamous graphic photo.

The tweet was deleted about an hour later and the airline apologized, explaining that the image had been sent to them by a Twitter user and was later inadvertently attached to their outgoing tweet:

We apologize for the inappropriate image we recently shared in a Twitter response. Our investigation has determined that the image was initially posted to our Twitter feed by another user. We captured the tweet to flag it as inappropriate. Unfortunately the image was inadvertently included in a response to a customer. We immediately realized the error and removed our tweet. We deeply regret the mistake and we are currently reviewing our processes to prevent such errors in the future.

The strange series of events comes on the heels of news that a 14-year old girl was arrested after sending a tweet to American Airlines, claiming to be from Al Qaeda.

In a follow-up report, the Washington Post quoted a US Airways official as saying no one would be fired because of the tweet, and that it was an “honest mistake.”