Most people would rather not think about potential death when booking plane tickets, but that didn’t stop KLM India from tweeting advice to passengers on the “safest” seats in an aircraft – just in case things go terribly wrong.

In the event that one is spiralling groundward in an aircraft, the best place to be sitting is in the “rear third” of the cabin, the airline tweeted on Wednesday, citing "data studies" by Time.

The worst place is the middle of the plane, where the "fatality rate" is the "highest” – and the death rate is "marginally lesser" for seats at the front of the plane, KLM’s tweet said.

. @klm: man, we’re sure getting a lot of flak for that breastfeeding tweet.@KLMIndia: hold my Kingfisher pic.twitter.com/LjM0PbZC4O — Steven (@Airwaysfoodie) July 17, 2019

KLM India had earlier asked its followers if they knew where the safest seats were as part of a competition to win “exciting KLM goodies.”

Needless to say, tweeters were fairly surprised by the choice of question for the “exciting” competition and indeed the airline’s rather blunt answer about fatality rates. Some wondered whether the account had been hacked or if its administrators might have “missed social media training.”

KLM ... did you miss the social media training? — SJW (@sjw_saints) July 17, 2019

We’ve all tweeted stuff we’ve had second thoughts about right? You do know it’s possible to delete a tweet? — The Gatwick Snapper (@GatwickSnapper) July 17, 2019

“I’m not sure this is the selling point your brand wants or needs,” one person wrote.

“Can you tell what kinds of fatal injuries we can expect from each position? Like decapitation, or just boring old blunt injuries to the chest and abdomen?” another quipped.

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The airline later deleted both tweets following the influx of incredulous replies, perhaps having realized it might be a tad insensitive and not quite what passengers wanted to be thinking about before embarking on a plane journey.

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