Zimbabwe plane crash a hoax

[NM]

From News.com.au:

AROUND the world, the news went out: Plane accident in Zimbabwe, black smoke on runway, ambulances screaming in.

Harare airport authorities tricked the public and the world's media into believing a security drill was a crash to make the drill and the emergency response seem more real.

 

[trooper]

Given what some sections of the media do (routinely.. not just as a one off)

... excuse me if I profess little sympathy for them in this case!

 

[samh004]

Boy who cried wolf? Next time it happens no one will report it and it’ll turn out to be real, but it’ll be their tough luck that no one believes them.

 

[NM]

Boy who cried wolf? Next time it happens no one will report it and it’ll turn out to be real, but it’ll be their tough luck that no one believes them.

Or perhaps next time they will take the effort to verify the facts before reporting. A simple check of the schedules to find which airline was operating a 767 from London for arrival around the time and check the status of the flight with the airline may have raised some questions. However, given the media release came from official government channels it seems the media is not really to blame.

 

[straitman]

... and to think authorities are frequently accused of not making emergency exercises realistic enough :!:

 

[samh004]

What I don’t get is:

was designed to simulate a hijacking in which nine people had been killed and 30 were injured

Yet there was black smoke rising from the runway as if the plane had crashed? Surely there’d be more dead and less injuries if the plane had crashed. This isn’t realistic at all!

 

[straitman]

What I don’t get is:



Yet there was black smoke rising from the runway as if the plane had crashed? Surely there’d be more dead and less injuries if the plane had crashed. This isn’t realistic at all!

It is a plausible scenario.