KLM apologises for revealing in which seat passengers are most likely to die

KLM has apologised after issuing a series of morbid tweets . Photo / Getty Images

The Dutch national airline has had to make a swift change of course and apologise after it warned passengers seated in the middle of the plane that they were more likely to die in the event of a crash.

KML Royal Dutch Airlines had to quickly backtrack after a piece of #TuesdayTrivia shared via an official Twitter account took a morbid turn.

"According to data studies by Time, the fatality rate for the seats in the middle of the plane is the highest" read the offensive tweet.

The statistics quoted via the airline's India branch @KLMIndia were criticised for being insensitive and in poor taste.

Along with the tweet was a picture of a KLM plane seat floating in the clouds, as if next in line at St Michael's gate.

Above the chair was the cheerily punctuated: "Seats at the back of a plane are the safest!"
As well as panicking passengers preparing to fly, some twitter users could not believe the offhanded nature with which the International airline was addressing the issue of air crash fatalities.

TuesdayTrivia: The offensive tweet. Photo / Supplied, Twitter

Astonishingly, the offensive tweet was followed by a second tweet highlighting the grim statement.

"Do you know which are the safest seats on an #aircraft? Comment the correct answer below and stand a chance to win exciting #KLM goodies!"

KLM appeared to be using air gruesome crash statistics to promote itself and ditribute merchandise "goodies".

Some twitter users rationalised that the Dutch airline's social media account had been hacked, rather than believing they would be behind the poor-taste tweets.

Following the backlash, the KLM account swiftly deleted the tweets.

Replacing the offensive competition was a statement from the airline:

"We would like to sincerely apologise for a recent update. The post was based on a publically available aviation fact, and isn't KLM opinion.

"It was never our intention to hurt anyone's sentiments. The post has since been deleted."

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