【USA】

Buckle up,USA folks, you're in for a wild ride.

A tweet claiming that EasyJet had introduced "backless seats" in its flights went viral on Tuesday, garnering 3.9K retweets and 5K likes and propelling the airline's name to the top of Twitter trending.

So, has EasyJet really allowed backless seats on its flight? According to their spokesperson, the answer to that question is a categorical no.

"How can this be allowed," asked original poster, Matthew Harris, who is, per his Twitter bio, the president and CEO of smart trade show event company Konduko.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Scroll through the replies to the original tweet and you'll spot a flurry of replies from EasyJet — the first of which asks Harris to remove the photograph in the tweet. You'll also spot an onslaught of comments from members of the public who were quick to criticise EasyJet for this, before the tide of criticism shifted as the story developed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Harris refused to delete the photo and then tweeted a photo of the flightpath, stating: "This is a real photo of a plane currently descending to Geneva."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

EasyJet told Mashable that the woman pictured in Harris' first photo was not permitted to sit in the "backless" seat, which was actually just a broken seat awaiting repair.

"No passengers were permitted to sit in these seats as they were inoperative awaiting repair," reads the statement.

"Safety is our highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all safety guidelines."

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Harris posted a follow-up tweet, stating that his partner took the photo. "One has to wonder how safe the rest of the plane was," he wrote. He added that the woman moved to a spare seat once everyone had boarded the plane.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Harris did not respond immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})