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Singapore Airlines says sorry for insensitive MH17 ‘publicity stunt’ post

Singapore Airlines has apologised for a perceived lack of sensitivity to those affected by the doomed Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight after posting on social media that its aircraft were not using Ukrainian airspace.

Singapore Airlines tweet

Singapore Airlines’ Facebook post after MH17 disaster

The post, which ran on the airline’s Twitter and Facebook pages, led to widespread criticism of Singapore’s most famous brand, with internet users slamming SIA for appearing to use the disaster as a publicity stunt to get one up on its local rival carrier. The post, which has been shared more than a thousand times on Facebook, also drew ire for failing to offer condolences to the victims’ loved ones.

SIA has since said sorry and posted its condolences to the families of those killed on the Malaysia Airlines jet, which was shot down over Eastern Ukraine.

Singapore Airlines post on MH17

A Singapore Airlines spokesperson said on Friday: “We are aware that our Facebook and Twitter update on Friday morning may have come across as insensitive to some.”

“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.”

In its defence, the airline noted that it had received a number of information requests from customers asking about the routes for their upcoming flights.

'Uncanny 7' The New PaperThe news emerges a few days after The New Paper, Singapore’s second highest circulating English language daily, published a cover story on MH17 that was deemed “tasteless” by social media users. The paper went with the headline ‘Uncanny 7’, using the number seven to link the downed MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane with the still-missing MH370 jet, the date on which MH17 crashed – 17 July – and the Boeing 777, the aircraft type of both planes.

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