It hasn't been a good year for airlines and social media success.

Recently British Airways got into hot water after a customer used a Promoted Tweet to vent his frustration, now US Airways has posted a pornographic tweet.

Not flying high

Early this month on Twitter US Airways responded to a customer complaint about a delayed flight with a tweet that contained an explicit image of a naked woman with a toy airplane.

The offending tweet was live for an hour before being deleted and US Airways issued an apology.

But an hour is an eternity on social: the image quickly went viral and Twitter was soon abuzz with chatter (and plenty of puns) about the tweet. 

To be fair, the airline's apology was also retweeted 13,000 times.

Damage control

US Airways is currently investigating the incident, but has revealed that the image was posted to its Twitter feed by a third-party user. It is still unknown how the image was subsequently included in the offending tweet.

Whether the tweet was an honest mistake or the work of a disgruntled employee, this example shows how vigilant brands must be on social, where a slip up can quickly escalate into a full-blown crisis.

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