Qantas’s big #fail in quelling tweeted rumors of a crash
As the Australian airline’s jet made an emergency landing, Twitter overflowed with unchecked misinformation.
Did a Qantas plane traveling from Singapore to Sydney crash in Indonesia on Wednesday?
If you were on Twitter as news trickled out, you may have believed so after seeing tweets such as these:
@oneclammy Plane crash off Indonesia, speculation that it could have been a Qantas jet headed for Singapore.
@amillavtr According to early reports from TV and Twitter it’s a Qantas airliner which crash at Batam.
@MuhdNabil Oh no! Breaking news of #Qantas airplane (#SG bound) crash near Batam. (Source: BBC)
Meanwhile, photos of debris from the plane began popping up on photo sharing sites.
There had been no crash. The plane, an Airbus A380, suffered damage to an engine and turned around for a safe emergency landing in Singapore. But Twitter users didn’t know that from the Australian airline, whose two Twitter accounts remained silent on the incident until Thursday.
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