McFly singer Tom Fletcher has been forced to apologise for an “insensitive” post shared in the wake of the Air India plane crash that has killed more than 250 people.
On Thursday (12 June), the plane, which was flying to London Gatwick, crashed into a hostel building in Gujarat five minutes after taking off.
Images and videos from the city showed plumes of smoke pouring from the wreckage of the plane as firefighters tried to douse the charred remains of buildings impacted by the crash.
Shortly after, Fletcher, 39, shared a post on his Instagram Stories about becoming a trained pilot, which had been accompanied by Foo Fighters song “Learn to Fly”.
But when many of his two million followers alerted him to the news, Fletcher realised the poor timing and deleted it. He immediately issued an apology, writing in a follow-up post: “Sorry, I’ve only just seen the terrible news about the Air India crash. So awful.
“Had I known earlier, I obviously wouldn’t have posted about my flight today. I understand why that must have looked insensitive and have deleted it.”
The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant said that his “whole heart goes out to everyone involved in the crash and all their friends and families”.
Fletcher’s apology arrived hours after The Only Way is Essex star Mark Wright addressed an “inappropriate” post he’d shared in the aftermath of the Air India crash.
After his followers questioned the post, which saw him complaining about leg room on flights, Wright explained that he had written and scheduled it before the crash had occurred. He called it a “horrendous coincidence”.
“I apologise for a post I just put up on my page after today’s heartbreaking events,” he wrote on his Instagram Stories.
“I have posts from a holiday that are on the scheduled setting, which go out on future days I have set them for which was done last week. It’s a horrendous coincidence that today’s post was on such a devastating day.”
He continued: “Once I logged in to my Instagram and realised the post had gone out, I immediately deleted. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected from today.”
Wright apologised “for this mistake and any offence caused”.
A British national was the sole survivor of the Air India flight. Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who had been sitting in seat 11A, was identified by local police shortly after the crash.
Indian civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said on Thursday night that a formal investigation in keeping with international protocols had been initiated.
A UK team had been dispatched to join the investigation as well, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
The flight was under the command of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a line training captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, and First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 hours.
There were 10 other crew members on board, civil aviation authorities said.
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