Earlier today, it appeared that @SouthwestAir had joined the Mile High Club.
Around 1 p.m. EST, the official Twitter account for Southwest Airlines retweeted a user named @paulinadeginge, which consisted of the following statement: “‘i love giving head.’”
“Someone’s getting fired,” tweeted @AngelosTzelepis with a screenshot of the retweet.
@SouthwestAir quickly took down the offending retweet and issued a hasty apology.
“Sorry for that retweet, not a hack. Just a technology fail. Sorry for the confusion. It’s been deleted,” they wrote.
Twitter users might be more forgiving, except @SouthwestAir has a history of offline gaffes that have played out in tweets and eroded the airline’s online goodwill.
Last month, the airline came under scrutiny when lesbian actress and musician Leisha Hailey said she’d been booted off her Southwest flight for kissing her girlfriend.
By the time the airline responded, Southwest Air had already become a Twitter trending topic, and not in a good way.
Going back further, Southwest Airlines had an incident with Kevin Smith—one of the earliest cases of a Twitter complaint going viral—and an altercation involving Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.
For now, Twitter users are content to rubberneck the embarrassing mistake like they potentially would, say, a plane wreck.
“All of a sudden, following @SouthwestAir is paying off,” tweeted @MrEmilyHeller.
Photo by Phil Ostroff