The AP’s latest MH17 crash tweet shows the importance of a style guide

The Associated Press (AP) stylebook is the single most important book in a lot of journalists’ libraries, but the person behind its Twitter feed definitely could have done with a fresh glance at it today.

One of the news agency’s latest tweets around the Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash was ambiguous enough to leave people concerned that a fresh tragedy had occurred while the bodies of the deceased were being flown to the Netherlands.

Check it out:

BREAKING: Dutch military plane carrying bodies from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash lands in Eindhoven.

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2014

You guys know you wrote a guide for this kind of stuff, right? pic.twitter.com/CzY9aznQyF

— R/GA (@RGA) July 23, 2014

AP was however quick to issue a correction:

CLARIFIES: Dutch military plane carrying Malaysia Airlines bodies lands in Eindhoven.

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 23, 2014

The plane, which crashed 50 km from the Ukraine–Russia border late last week, is believed to have been brought down by a Buk surface-to-air missile.