Yahoo – AFP,
20 July 2014
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has apologised for posting an "insensitive" comment on social media Singapore Airlinesabout the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in crisis-stricken eastern Ukraine.
A
pro-Russia militant walks past a dead body near the crash site of Flight MH17 in
Grabove, in rebel-held east Ukraine, on July 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget) |
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has apologised for posting an "insensitive" comment on social media Singapore Airlinesabout the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in crisis-stricken eastern Ukraine.
Hours after
the Boeing 777-200 passenger jet with 298 people on board went down on
Thursday, believed shot by a surface-to-air missile, SIA posted a one-line
statement on Facebook and Twitter.
It read:
"Customers may wish to note that Singapore Airlines flights are not using
Ukraine airspace."
The comment
sparked anger among users of social media.
"How
about at least acknowledging the terrible event and sending condolences to
those families and friends involved instead of this cold, classless
update?," wrote a Michael Reif in response.
Hundreds of
others joined in the condemnation but some defended the airline, saying it was
trying to reassure customers concerned about the safety of their flight route.
"We
are aware that our Facebook and Twitter update on Friday morning may have come
across as insensitive to some," SIA said in a Facebook posting late
Saturday.
"We
recognise that the information could have been better communicated and we
sincerely apologise if it had offended our customers and anyone else in the
online community," it added.
"The
post was in response to many requests from our customers who had asked for
information about our flight routes for their upcoming flights with us."
SIA
acknowledged that prior to the crash it was flying the route taken by MH17 but
has since re-routed flights.
World
leaders are in agreement that MH17 was blown out of the sky by a surface-to-air
missile fired from rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine.
Kiev has
gone a step further, saying militias using a Russian-supplied anti-aircraft
system were responsible.
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