The Associated Press was less than careful Wednesday morning when the news agency tweeted about the landing of the plane carrying the bodies of MH17 victims back to the Netherlands, and the result was shock and mass confusion across Twitter.
The AP sent the following tweet, reporting that the plane had landed in Eindhoven. But the presence of the word “crash” immediately before the word “lands” led many to believe that the plane had crash landed.
BREAKING: Dutch military plane carrying bodies from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash lands in Eindhoven.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2014
The tweet was sent at 9:50 a.m. Eastern time and had more than 2,000 re-tweets and a host of stunned and confused replies within minutes.
The reaction prompted the news organization to follow up with this tweet nine minutes later.
CLARIFIES: Dutch military plane carrying Malaysia Airlines bodies lands in Eindhoven.
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2014