Zimbabwe's aviation authority declined to name the airline involved, but confirmed to the media that the flight had originated in London.
A short while later, the breaking news stories mysteriously stopped, the dramatic headlines were pulled, and the media went strangely quiet about the whole affair.
As time went by, it transpired that there was no accident, it was an emergency drill, and the grieving relatives were all actors.
Whilst emergency drills are routine at all airports, this one was slightly bizarre in that it was officially reported to the media by aviation authorities as a genuine accident and the story was spread worldwide within minutes of the initial report. Apparently as part of the emergency drill, authorities wanted to test how the media would react in the event of a real incident.
Yet another reason not to believe everything you see or hear in the media, and why it's perhaps best to keep breaking news stories off our pages and wait for the full facts of a situation to be established !
David
