Airbus hotly denies its alleged bright idea of creating coffin-sized "standing tomb only" padded backboards created especially to cram more sardines into their flying tin cans, contradicting a New York Times article by Christopher Elliott that described the strap-on standing seats in an article last week. But Elliott cries foul in his blog, refusing to back down even though his newspaper printed a mild, sorta/kinda retraction. The Times reporter even produced an illustration of the "seats" for all to see. Said he in his blog:

I didn't invent standing airline seats, but some believe that I have. Maybe the only way to clear this up is to post a picture of the seat that someone recently sent to me.

Who knows where this little .gif file came from, but who are we going to believe? A New York Times reporter, or an embarrassed French airline maker in cahoots with greedy, money-losing and passenger-hating airlines around the world?

Taking a stand [ellipses, via The Consumerist]

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