Virgin Atlantic Sacks 13 Cabin Crew Over Facebook Remarks

13 Virgin Atlantic flight attendants have been dismissed following comments left on popular networking website Facebook in which they described passengers as "chavs" and lashed out at the airline's safety standards.

The airline, owned by British tycoon, Sir Richard Branson, said that the staff dismissed had a totally inappropriate behaviour that brought disrepute to the overall company.

Amongst the many comments left, apparently from staff at Gatwick airport, some purported to cockroaches in planes and unreliable jet engines that had to be changed on average every quarter.

The messages and the Facebook group have now been removed after what the company called "a thorough investigation".

Although some say that Facebook is good for businesses and firms by allowing employees to create informal network for the ultimate benefit of the company, the last few weeks have seen a number of corporate gaffes on Facebook which show that Social networking is indeed a two-edged sword.

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A few days ago, a Telecoms worker in Australia faked a sick day but then innocently updated his Facebook with details of his previous night out while back in August, an ex-Argos employee was fired for publicly saying what he thought about the company where he (used to) worked.

One of the greatest problems with social networking websites is that it is highly unlikely that even private messages would remain private and members ultimately have little control over who sees their updates and messages.