Apology over Concorde advert

113 people died in the crash

Newsweek magazine and the Swiss banking giant UBS have apologised for an "unfortunate" advertisement which appeared in the middle of Newsweek International's 10-page coverage about last week's Concorde crash.

The financial giant's spread shows a large photograph of a flight engineer tending to the wheels of a jumbo jet - alongside the headline "Success is more than take off and landing".

The offending advertisement appeared in 325,000 copies of the magazine.

From UBS's point of view, they were an absolute victim

Newsweek International

Both companies involved have apologised for the insensitivity of the advert which was published a week after the Air France Concorde crashed near Paris, killing 113 people.

The text of the advert begins: "Details count. Aim high but don't lose sight of the nuts & bolts."

A spokesman for UBS, Ted Meyer, said it was part of a series being published in magazines around the world.

"We did realise that this ad had come up to run last Wednesday, and at that time we contacted our ad agencies and asked them to pull this ad," he said.

"For some reason, we were unsuccessful in reaching them in time. We regret that."

UBS a 'victim'

Peter Luffman, president of Newsweek International, said his company accepted full responsibility for the "dreadful, awful" situation.

He said the magazine had checked for any airline adverts in the wake of the Concorde disaster, but that no-one had thought to check for a banking advert.

Mr Luffman added: "From UBS's point of view, they were an absolute victim. They have no responsibility for this. It was Newsweek's fault.

"The families and people involved in the crash will be horrified to see this. We are deeply sorry. It was an unfortunate accident."

Prior to this month, Concorde's safety record was excellent

He said the ad - for which UBS will not be charged - appeared in 45,000 issues of the magazine's UK edition, which came out on Tuesday.

The 280,000 issues sold in France and the rest of Europe carry the ad too, but in a different part of the magazine, about 20 pages away from the article about the crash, he said.

A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Authority said it would not be surprising if there were complaints about it.

"But it is the kind of thing we would resolve informally rather than holding an official investigation," he added.