Discussion of Ethiopian Airline Crash on Twitter
Posted by Ying Xiong
On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airline Flight 302 with 159 people was crashed near Bishoftu, Ethiopia. The victims in the incident were from 35 nations. The majority of them came from Kenya. Eight victims came from the U.S.
On March 13, the U.S. decided to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes after the Ethiopian crash.
From March 10th to March 13th, 6,400 tweets discussed the Ethiopian Airline’s incident. On the first day of the incident, March 10th, the discussion reached the peak.
The majority of social influencers are media agencies, including Business Insider, Newsweek, USA Today, ABC7 Eyewitness News, and many others.
As for the top words, the majority of people talked about the incident itself, including where did the crash happen, when (e.g., Sunday), and who involved in the incident (e.g., captain, pilot).
Also, people expressed their emotions online about the crash incident, using the words “awful” and “criminally.” Overall, 80.8% of tweets contained negative sentiments. On March 10, individuals’ negative sentiments significantly arose.
Additionally, the company of Boeing and the 737 Max plane attracted much attention. Many social media users discussed President Trump grounded all Boeing 737 Max planes.