Thursday March 28th, 2024
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EgyptAir Twitter-slaps Israel’s Haaretz for Falsely Claiming Hijacked Libyan Plane Is Theirs

Haaretz falsely attached a picture of an EgyptAir airplane to an online report on a hijacked Libyan aircraft and EgyptAir wasn't having it!

Staff Writer

In an incident similar to the hijacking of EgyptAir's airplane last March – which topped social media trends then, a Libyan airplane, en route to Tripoli, was hijacked by two armed hijackers last Friday, forcing it to change its destination to Malta, with 111 passengers on board.

The hijack of the Libyan aircraft, as in EgyptAir's case, ended peacefully. The two hijackers surrendered hours after landing in the Malta International Airport, declaring that their goal was to reach Europe in order to seek asylum there.

The incident was reported on by major news outlets around the world. A picture of the hijacked EgyptAir airplane from earlier this year was falsely attached to Israeli news publication Haaretz’s report on the Libyan airplane debacle, invoking a swift reaction by EgyptAir's social media team on twitter.In a direct reply to Haaretz's visually deceiving tweet, EgyptAir's social media team tweeted: “The hijacked aircraft in not an EgyptAir one. If you don’t have a photo of the hijacked aircraft, don’t use one.” EgyptAir has been struggling to salvage its reputation after a devastating year, during which saw several incidents involving its aircrafts took place, including the aforementioned incident in March and the EgyptAir flight 804 crash in the Mediterranean on May 18th.

EgyptAir's tweet went viral, even after Haaretz removed the original tweet some 8 hours later, with social media experts and specialized websites applauding EgyptAir's handling of the incident, describing it as professional and prompt, as reported by Egypt Independent.  

The move drew heavy criticism to Haaretz on social media, yet no official apology was issued by the news outlet.