Flying on a budget airline can be a little sparse sometimes, but at the very least, customers can expect a seat with a full back. In a photograph shared on Twitter by Matthew Harris on Tuesday, a woman is sitting in what appears to be a backless seat on an EasyJet plane.
#easyjet beats @Ryanair to have backless seats. @IATA @EASA this is flight 2021 Luton to Geneva. How can this be allowed. @GeneveAeroport @easyJet_press @easyJet pic.twitter.com/EthMoWRR8P
— Matthew Harris (@mattiasharris) August 6, 2019
Though both Harris and EasyJet clarified that no one actually sat there during the flight to Geneva, as the woman was moved to another seat with a proper back before take off, it still raised concerns on Twitter.
One has to wonder how safe the rest of the plane was. This was her seat. The lady was moved to a spare seat once the flight was fully boarded. Not sure what would have happened if the flight was full.
— Matthew Harris (@mattiasharris) August 6, 2019
My partner took the photo.
— end —
Especially as it’s not the first flight to have had this problem.
https://twitter.com/tgd83/status/1158691498168332289
Is that row 11? If it is then I was on that exact plane yesterday when travelling back from Barcelona, I was in row 10
— MR DT (@MrDtAFC) August 6, 2019
Understandably, people were concerned about what this meant for the condition of the rest of the plane.
It was a photograph of a woman sitting inside a plane on half a seat.
— Nolan 🚀👉❤ :/ ⛄! (@sneakin) August 6, 2019
What other plane maintence is going undone?
If you operate a plane with a row of seats like this what does it say about the rest of the aircraft?
— Dan Tappin 🇨🇦🍎 (@dantappin) August 6, 2019
You worry about the picture but you do not worry about those chairs and the unsafe sitution for those behind them, look at the metal sticking out, what if there are children behind those chairs ? This plane is a joke.
— Fuck Poetin & Hamas (@Willy1000) August 6, 2019
Aside from worries about the state of the plane, people were concerned about the passengers in the row behind the backless seat.
In the case of an emergency landing, exactly what would happen to this lady and the passengers behind her?
— Roger Johansson (@RogerAlsing) August 6, 2019
To me it looks like the passenger behind would smash their head straight into this ladys spine.
It’s true that the brace position usually involves resting your head against the seat in front of you. This is to prevent a worse head injury being caused during impact by the passenger’s skull meeting that seat at high speed. If the passenger is too short to do that, or if they’re sitting at the front and therefore have no seat to brace against, tucking their head into their knees while gripping their ankles is fine. So while it’s an understandable concern, it looks like the passengers behind the empty seats would have been no worse off than everyone else in the event of a crash.
Beyond the safety concerns, however, people were absolutely incensed by the response from EasyJet’s social media team:
Hi Matthew, thanks for bringing this to our attention, before we can investigate this could I ask you to remove the photograph & then DM us more info regarding this, so we can best assist you. Ross
Hi Matthew, thanks for bringing this to our attention, before we can investigate this could I ask you to remove the photograph & then DM us more info regarding this, so we can best assist you. Ross https://t.co/Qq2zhBAizh
— easyJet (@easyJet) August 6, 2019
Asking someone to remove seemingly damning evidence is a singularly unwise move. Especially on the internet, where everything lives forever.
@easyJet You guys really have no idea how the internet works do you?
— SpAToSMG (@SpAToSMG) August 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/DesertWolfPS/status/1158799419539505153
How dare you ask him to remove this? If you don’t want to be put on blast and shamed, don’t jeopardize passenger safety. I’m going to RT the hell out of this simply because you asked him to remove it, cowards.
— Rhonda (@Look_its_Rhonda) August 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/fbspin/status/1158810314441449472
Thanks to Ross’ unwise approach, the rest of the poor social media team got to witness the Streisand Effect—where an attempt to suppress a photograph or information causes it to spread wildly. Twitter users began replying to EasyJet with the photograph.
you want everyone to post this picture? got it 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/0t5R9Eh0ML
— 🪶🫒🍉🗝️ 𓂆 فلسطين حرة 🇵🇸 هالي (@scribehotan) August 6, 2019
you want everyone to post this picture? got it 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/0t5R9Eh0ML
— 🪶🫒🍉🗝️ 𓂆 فلسطين حرة 🇵🇸 هالي (@scribehotan) August 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/GerryGardendick/status/1158778247720656897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1158778247720656897&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailydot.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost-new.php
a good example of the Streisand effect caused by Easyjet 🙄 pic.twitter.com/zbnWxA39Ny
— Marc (@marc131) August 6, 2019
Twitter user Tony Alexander offered the now besieged social media team some advice going forward on how to respond to customers’ concerns about a flight:
Here, EasyJet: We are aware of a photo depicting a traveler in a backless seat circulating social media. This photo in no way depicts the level of service, or safety our customers deserve. We are investigating this matter, and will take immediate steps to avoid this in the future
Here, EasyJet: We are aware of a photo depicting a traveler in a backless seat circulating social media. This photo in no way depicts the level of service, or safety our customers deserve. We are investigating this matter, and will take immediate steps to avoid this in the future
— Tony Alexander (@tonyalexander) August 6, 2019
Let’s hope this doesn’t start a trend among low-cost airlines.
It's an extra £29.99 for a seat back. Read the TC.
— Louie (@logicVSdumb) August 6, 2019
The Daily Dot reached out to EasyJet for comment, but the airline has yet to respond. We’ll update the article if we hear from the company.
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