Budget airline easyjet has come under fire after a passenger was pictured sitting on a seat with no back.
Social media users rounded on the company branding the image "unacceptable".
Passenger Matthew Harris posted snap of a woman sitting on the seat to Twitter .
It shoes the back section missing across the entire row, Mirror online reports.
The tech entrepreneur added the caption: "easyJet beats @ Ryanair to have backless seats. How can this be allowed?"
The picture was taken aboard a flight from Luton Airport to Geneva ion Switzerland earlier today.
Australian Matthew received a reply from the airline, asking him to remove it from the social networking site.
They claim passengers were told not to use the seat in the interests of safety and say that passengers were not assigned it, but admitted that the row had not been blocked off.
Social media users have expressed outrage over the incident and described the it as "absurd" and "illegal".
One person said: "Surely that's a massive risk for neck injury on take off and landing (apart from everything else that's wrong with this)."
The airline asked Matthew to remove the picture from Twitter so they could look into the incident - a request which he refused.
In a tweet, easyJet said: "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".
He replied: "Absolutely not. This is a real photo of a plane currently descending to Geneva."
An easyJet spokesperson said: "No passengers were permitted to sit in these seats as they were inoperative awaiting repair.
"Safety is our highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all safety guidelines."
