“Very poor taste”: Airline slammed after morbid Twitter gaffe
An airline has had to apologise to the public after tweeting a grim statistic as a part of a “Tuesday Trivia” promotion.
The airline tweeted statistics about the likelihood of a passenger dying during a crash based on their seating assignment.
“According to data studies by Time, the fatality rate for the seats in the middle of the plane is the highest.
“However, the fatality rate for the seats in the front is marginally lesser and is least for seats at the rear third of a plane,” the tweet said.
There was an image of an aircraft seat accompanying the tweet as well as the message: “Seats at the back of a plane are the safest!”.
Many twitter users responded in droves, saying that the tweet was inappropriate.
KLM India removed the tweet and replaced it with an apology.
We would like to sincerely apologise for a recent update. The post was based on a publically available aviation fact, and isn't a @KLM opinion. It was never our intention to hurt anyone's sentiments. The post has since been deleted.
— KLM India (@KLMIndia) July 17, 2019
However, for some Twitter users, the damage was done.
“If I’m gonna die it’s going to be in first class,” one person commented.
“Frankly, I’m glad to know the seats in the back of the plane are the safest,” another added.
“Besides the tweet which was in very poor taste, your statement also wasn’t a fact because there’s just not enough data (thankfully) to make that assertion,” one person wrote.
One user pointed out the morbid timing of the tweet.
“Not the best tweet on the fifth anniversary of crash of #MH17,” a user wrote.