Singapore Airlines (SIA) has apologised for posting an “insensitive” comment on social media about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash in crisis-stricken eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
It read: “Customers may wish to note that Singapore Airlines flights are not using Ukraine airspace.”<\/p>\n
The comment sparked anger among users of social media.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
SIA acknowledged that prior to the crash it was flying the route taken by MH17 but has since re-routed flights.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kiev has gone a step further, saying militias using a Russian-supplied anti-aircraft system were responsible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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