Jason Biggs apologizes, deletes joke tweet about Malaysia Airlines

Actor Jason Biggs was fully owning his Malaysia Airlines Twitter joke on Thursday morning. But by the afternoon, he’d switched to owning up.

“Hey all- ok, so- I am deleting my previous tweets. People were offended, and that was not my intent. Sorry to those of you that were,” Biggs wrote in the first of a series of four mea culpa posts.

“This is obviously a horrible tragedy, and everyone-including myself- is sad and angry about it. Sending positive thoughts to the victims and their families. P.S. No one is making me send these tweets- I simply understand that my comments might have come off as insensitive and ill-timed. For that, I apologize.”

The “Orange Is the New Black” and “American Pie” actor had drawn attention — of the not-good kind — with a tweet that joked, “Anyone want to buy my Malaysian Airlines frequent flier miles?” His comment was published a little more than two hours after contact with flight MH17 was lost.

The jetliner, operated by the same airline that lost its Flight 370 in March with 280 passengers on board, had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine with 298 people aboard.

Biggs had initially stuck to his guns after making the crack, saying his tweet had clearly been a joke, retweeting supportive comments and calling his critics “losers.”

Of course, in comedy, timing is everything.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.