Down the Bog

Since moving to Canada I’ve not really been an avid newspaper reader and I wrote a bit about this in an earlier blog entry.

But I still try to keep up to date online with what the newspapers are saying and in particular the UK publications. So I read with interest a story about the collision of two planes last week at Heathrow Airport in England. They were both on the ground at the time but as a SriLankan Airlines Airbus 340 passed by a stationary British Airways Boeing 747 it sliced off the winglet of the plane. No one was hurt but likewise both planes would certainly not be flying that day.

The Daily Mail now reports that on the following day the SriLankan aircraft was due to take off but seven passengers refused to travel once they realised it was the same plane and insisted on getting off.

Now if you read this story the curious thing is that the report talks at length about how passengers refused to fly with the winglet sliced off even though the airline insisted that it was safe but this account doesn’t ring true because it was the British Airways 747 that lost it’s winglet. The picture clearly shows that. So why was there any discussion about the winglet on the Airbus? It was still intact.

I think this is a good example of a newspaper being a little “creative” in it’s reporting and trying to make the story a little more shocking. I certainly don’t have trouble in understanding that passengers might not want to travel on an aircraft that twenty-four hours previously had been involved in a collision but the story sounds much better if it’s suggested that a chunk of it’s wing is missing. So as I say it’s all a bit confusing to read and make sense of unless you allow for the fact that the newspaper might be garnishing the story just a bit.

It’s a bit like the Madeleine McCann story. Apparently the tabloid press in the UK have had an absolute field day with this tragic event and goodness knows what they’ve found to talk about each day and how much of it is not just a bit of creativity on the part of the press. We need to be selective in our reading me thinks.