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Trinity Mirror The Western Mail

Western Mail regional daily apologises for caption error that included 'LOL' on airport boss’s death

By Hamish Mackay

August 10, 2012 | 2 min read

The Cardiff-based Western Mail regional daily has apologised after a picture caption error which appeared to make light of an airport boss’s death in a plane crash.

Bob Jones, manager of Mid Wales Airport, was killed after a light aircraft in which he was a passenger crashed into trees on a hillside in Powys in January.

A report in yesterday’s Western Mail on the outcome of an inquiry into the accident contained a picture of Jones which was captioned: “Mid-Wales airport manager Bob Jones, 60, who was killed in the crash LOL.”

Media website Press Gazette reports: “The erroneous inclusion of the letters LOL – which mean Laugh Out Loud – led to widespread condemnation of the newspaper on the social networking site Twitter.

Freelance journalist Jack Seale nominated it as the worst caption fail of all time, while Western Mail reader Barry Taylor said the paper had sunk to “unacceptable new lows.”

A spokesman for publisher Trinity Mirror is quoted as saying: “The caption error in today’s Western Mail is under internal investigation.

“We apologise for any offence this error may have caused.”

Trinity Mirror The Western Mail

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