--- title: Explaining the Viral EasyJet Backless Seats Photo description: Explaining the controversy of the easyJet flight sitting in a backless seat going viral, the airline addresses the controversy. canonical: https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-06T18:10:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:48.522Z og:title: EasyJet Addresses Controversial Photo of 'Backless Seats' on Flight og:description: "No passengers were permitted to fly in these seats" og:url: https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0df9fd983317377/698a00f6096a94cf4a6a6c4c/easyjet-backless-seats.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: EasyJet-Backless-Seats og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: EasyJet Addresses Controversial Photo of 'Backless Seats' on Flight twitter:description: "No passengers were permitted to fly in these seats" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0df9fd983317377/698a00f6096a94cf4a6a6c4c/easyjet-backless-seats.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Story Behind That Controversial 'Backless Seats' Photo > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 6, 2019 6:10 PM UTC  An easyJet Airbus A319 lands at Stuttgart Airport. An easyJet Airbus A319 lands at Stuttgart Airport. picture alliance—Getty Image  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 6, 2019 6:10 PM UTC In the wake of a photo of a [passenger](https://time.com/5644910/cathay-pacific-passengers-cctv-cameras/) on an [easyJet flight](https://time.com/5641390/europe-train-air-travel/) sitting in a backless seat going viral, the airline has addressed the controversy. The original photo has been retweeted over 11,000 times and liked nearly 20,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, around 10 hours after it was shared. [Twitter user Matthew Harris](https://twitter.com/mattiasharris) tweeted out the shot of a woman perched on a seat without a back onboard what he said was a flight to Geneva. “[#easyjet](https://twitter.com/hashtag/easyjet?src=hashtag%5Fclick) beats [@Ryanair](https://twitter.com/Ryanair) to have backless seats,” he captioned the shot, adding tags for both the International Air Trade Association (IATA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). “This is flight 2021 Luton to Geneva. How can this be allowed.” The [official easyJet Twitter account](https://twitter.com/easyJet) initially responded by asking Harris to remove the photo while easyJet investigated the matter, a reply that frustrated some, including Harris himself. > [](https://twitter.com/easyJet/status/1158642028143611904) > [](https://twitter.com/mattiasharris/status/1158645383393873920) > [](https://twitter.com/brolezholloway/status/1158703942328573954) However, easyJet later told TIME that while there were broken seats onboard the flight, no passengers were assigned to them and the flight departed with five spare seats. “No passengers were permitted to fly in these seats as they were inoperative awaiting repair,” the airline said in a statement. “Safety is our highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all safety guidelines.” Harris corroborated the airline’s statement in a later tweet, but expressed that he still had concerns about the safety of the aircraft. “One has to wonder how safe the rest of the plane was,” he wrote. “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.” > [](https://twitter.com/mattiasharris/status/1158691889207554049) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/"},"headline":"Here's the Story Behind That Controversial 'Backless Seats' Photo","datePublished":"2019-08-06T18:10:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:48.522Z","description":"EasyJet told TIME that the flight departed with five spare seats","url":"https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Airlines","Travel","Air travel","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0df9fd983317377/698a00f6096a94cf4a6a6c4c/easyjet-backless-seats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0df9fd983317377/698a00f6096a94cf4a6a6c4c/easyjet-backless-seats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"EasyJet-Backless-Seats","caption":"EasyJet addresses controversy over 'backless seats'","creditText":"picture alliance—Getty Image","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5645246/easyjet-backless-seats/","name":"Here's the Story Behind That Controversial 'Backless Seats' Photo"}}]}] ```