Miscommunicated 767 Landing accident at Harare turns out to be a non-event

August 5, 2010 · by Miyuru Sandaruwan · in

UPDATE: The Airport Authority is now confirming there wasn’t any accident. It is not clear why the CEO decided to create a false alarm.
He later stated that he deliberately misinformed the media stating a Boeing 767 aircraft from London had crashed on landing.

The events started with Harare Airport Authority CEO confirming to AFP and a number of international media that a Boeing 767 aircraft from London had crashed while attempting to land at Harare Airport. The event later turned out to be an annual preparedness exercise held by Medical Rescue International.
The company confirmed the following to BNO News Wire.
“No real aircraft was being used during the drill. It is to test all the agencies.”
“Today’s event simulated a large aircraft that ran off the end of the runway, crashed and burned”
“It simulated that there were 140 casualties”.

It is very unfortune to notice how the Airport Authority CEO had been unaware of the training exercise at the very airport he manages and created an unnecessary chaos.

The CEO was not immediately available for comment.
However later stated that he deliberately misinformed the media, to see how media would react.
” Telling the media was part of the exercise. We wanted to see how the media would react”
” I told you there’d been an accident to make it ( the training ) more realistic. It was generally an all-round success.”

Airports around the world regulary conduct safety exercises, however only after sending out relevant notifications and do not misinform in order to avoid unnecessary panic.

Original report:
The Harare Airport Authority CEO confirmed to AFP that a Boeing 767 from London has been involved at an landing “accident” at Harare. No other info available yet.

The only carrier flying between HRE and London, Air Zimbabwe, operates two 767-200ERs. The aircraft are Z-WPE and Z-WPF. Of these, Z-WPF’s last recorded flight to London has been on 2nd Aug while WPE had flown to London yesterday – but without a recorded return flight yet.