Bad news travels fast. And with on social media it travels even faster.
Sadly, news of a Thai AirAsia aircraft hitting a bird took on a life of its own in social media this week, but for a wrong reason.
When an AirAsia flight was about to land at Nakhon Si Thammarat airport, after travelling down from Bangkok, the plane's wing hit a bird. The flight landed safe, but the incident hit the news and social media pretty quickly.
Why? Well, the local word for "bird" is "Nok".
News spread around social media that "AirAsia plane wings hit Nok Air plane". Nok Air is local, Bangkok-based low cost carrier.
But, Nok Air acted immediately to clarify the actual situation via its official Twitter account:
Nok Air's international corporate communications director, Shaun Pham, wrote (with tongue planted firmly in cheek):
This is a classic example of how the rush to share everything on social media can quickly and easily go awry.
One can imagine a similar scenario if India-based (but currently grounded) airline Kingfisher was in a similar situation.
NB:AirAsia image via Shutterstock.