Jeff Bezos has come under fire for celebrating Blue Origin's flight into space and for being late to offer condolences to victims of the Amazon warehouse collapse in the city of Edwardsville in the US state of Illinois.
The collapse of the Amazon warehouse occurred because of a tornado that occurred in six US states on Friday (10/12) night. The force of the very strong wind made the roof of the warehouse blown and several walls of the building collapsed.
The day after, Bezos was in West Texas to release a crew of six that flew into space on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. The flight to the edge of space was also attended by presenter Michael Strahan and Alan Shepard's daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley.
Bezos also posted a photo with the six crew members on Instagram, but the caption didn't say anything about the tragedy that occurred at the Amazon warehouse.
"Happy crew this morning at the training center," Bezos wrote in the caption to his post on Instagram, as quoted from News.com.au, Sunday (12/12/2021).
Bezos' post was immediately criticized by netizens. Many thought he was insensitive for celebrating the Blue Origin flight when an Amazon warehouse collapsed and claimed lives. According to Illinois authorities, at least six people have died and some are still missing.
"You should be more worried about the tornado situation," one netizen commented under Bezos' post.
"Jeff Bezos hasn't said anything about the lives lost at his facility in Illinois after the tornado that trapped a number of employees. But of course, pretend to be an astronaut for 10 minutes. Unreal," said Twitter user Joshua Dyer.
"He's in West Texas today! An employee has died! He could have flown 1 1/2 hours to St. Louis which is only 30 minutes from the airport to visit an Amazon warehouse destroyed by a tornado," wrote another Twitter user.
Bezos then expressed his condolences via Twitter on Saturday (11/12) night. He said Amazon was committed to helping the community in Edwardsville and thanked the rescue team.
"The news from Edwardsville is tragic. We are saddened to have lost our team-mates there, and our thoughts are with their families and loved ones," Bezos tweeted.
"All of Edwardsville should know that the Amazon team is committed to supporting them and will continue to be by their side during this crisis."