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MANILA, Philippines – It was a gesture that seemed thoughtful to some but ominous to others.
After confirming on social media that AirAsia Indonesia had lost contact with one of its planes, AirAsia changed its logos on Facebook and Twitter from its trademark bright red to a more sober gray.
AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Hong Kong also changed their logos from red to gray.
Flight QZ8501 was en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, on Sunday, December 28, when it lost contact with air traffic control at around 7:24 am, according to a statement from AirAsia.
“Not again,” posted many users in response to news of the missing plane.
The plane, an Airbus A320-200, had 162 passengers and crew members on board, according to Indonesia’s Transport Ministry.
Both AirAsia, Singapore, and Malaysia’s search and rescue operations have been activated to look for the missing AirAsia plane.
‘Be red again’
To Facebook users, AirAsia’s quick change logo change was heartbreaking. “You should not change logo black color. It makes people so sad,” Khamlu Varlaintai wrote in the comments section.
Other users criticized the Malaysia-based low-cost airline for updating its social media accounts before releasing newer updates.
“Why why why?? Latest update please! Don’t just make it grey!!! Found or not?” wrote Kelly Henney.
“At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available,” AirAsia said in its latest statement.
The missing AirAsia plane is the 3rd in a series of aviation mishaps to happen in 2014.
In March 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 went missing and is yet to be found. A few months later in July, another Malaysian Airlines flight was gunned down over Ukraine, killing nearly 300 on board.
Netizen Sam Marcus wondered why AirAsia had a grayscale version of their logo “ready and waiting.”
“It just a sign that AA is in pray mode. why taking complain too much ?? just wait and see. they should to make sure everything happen true then news it to world,” user Jemi Alfredo said.
“It’s nearing 5 hours since 7 o’clock and Indonesia is not that far from Singapore. If the plane is on the ground, let us pray and hope that it landed roughly safely and that everybody is more or less safe and sound. If it is still in air, let us hope that everybody is calm and nobody did anything stupid,” said Nehru Sathiamoorthy.
“We will be putting out another statement soon. Thank you for all your thoughts and prays. We must stay strong,” AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said on Twitter.
A couple of users similarly hoped for the best, wishing AirAsia’s logo would “be red again” soon. – With reports from Bea Cupin and the Rappler Social Media Team/Rappler.com
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