Malaysia Airlines was criticized for its slow and fumbling response to the disappearance of flight MH370 four months ago. Now, with the shooting down of flight MH17 over Ukraine, the question is whether Malaysia Air went too far in the other direction by posting updates on social media as the story was breaking.

A crisis tweet needs to stress the company will investigate the situation and show compassion.

PRWeek posed the question to John Hellerman, who said that while Malaysia Air could have made other appropriate choices, the decision to share information on Twitter was an “entirely reasonable” one. Other crisis communication experts agreed:

Most communications experts PRWeek spoke to say the speed [at which] media now operates forces the hand of an airline in this situation. Yet, like a traditional message to the media, a crisis tweet needs to stress the company will investigate the situation and show compassion, they note.

Malaysia Airlines’ tweets in the aftermath did just that—they provided information on the airline’s response and demonstrated compassion for victims. Additionally, Malaysia Air noted on twitter that MH17’s “flight route was declared safe and unrestricted” by relevant regulators. The latter may be a self-serving tweet, but it also provided some much-needed clarifying information in the wake of the tragedy.

Other tweets from Malaysia Airlines included: