Was Singapore Airlines’ Facebook and Twitter Message After the MH17 Crash Insensitive?

A Singapore Airlines flight on March 29, 2014. Photo by Flickr user Aero Icarus. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A Singapore Airlines flight on March 29, 2014. Photo by Flickr user Aero Icarus. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

After news broke out about the Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine, Singapore Airlines posted this message on Facebook and Twitter:

Many netizens accused the airline of being insensitive. Sophie Chang commented on Facebook that “a better way for the airline to do is to express condolences first.” But Stephen Chapman believes that the statement “was intended to bring calm in a general sense.” Ryan Ik appreciated the clarification but he also felt that “without any words of sympathy, the update feels very cold.”

Insensitive or not, this short update has since then become a viral message in a matter of hours.

Start the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.