Dubai: A cloud of smoke is all it took to start a tweet. When a cargo plane crashed after take-off from Sharjah International Airport, there was a sudden buzz in the Twitter world.
Active tweeters were trying to figure out where the smoke was emerging from. Several links to old web articles were also posted when people correctly assumed the reason.
Then came the confirmation; a tweeter @albertdias: "Reports of plane going down after take-off from Sharjah. Strong fuel smell and black cloud over airport. Aircraft with red and green striped livery."
Another tweeter, @DubaiWriter, posted: "Someone on the nearby golf course has reported that the plane made a u-turn but exploded. Don't know if it was a cargo or passenger plane."
Click here to follow Gulf News on twitter
Not aware of what their conversation would stir up, the tweeters continued to investigate. Their tweets alerted news agencies of the crash.
All the tweets on the Sharjah plane crash came together when tweeters realised how easy it is for a message to get lost in cyberspace. They then started using the common hashtag — “#ShjCrash”.
The smoke apparently drifted all the way to Mirdif, in Dubai according to tweeter Natapak. As the story unfolded, she continued providing updates to others who were interested.
By now, news agencies had reported the accident. Natapak then started providing links to articles, so that people were well aware of the situation.
As soon as the news was up on gulfnews.com, @AshChagla posted: "Gulf News saying it was a cargo plane with 6 people on board."
Following this, many tweeters posted hopeful messages, praying for everyone’s safety. @SaleemFancy wrote: "I hope there were no casualties on the ground when it crashed in Sharjah."
