Shipping vessel mistaken for crashed plane
The photograph, which has circulated on Twitter this afternoon, is believed to show the shipping vessel in the sea off the coast of the Canary Islands. Supplied
The Canary Islands emergency services were sure they were looking at a crashed plane in the ocean.
But it wasn't a plane; it was a shipping vessel.
Canarias 1-1-2 tweeted at 3.01pm local time that a plane had landed in the water 3km off the coast of Jinamar in Gran Canaria.
International news agency Reuters quickly reported the announcement and the story was featured on news outlets such as BBC and Sky News.
But eight minutes after the original post, Canarias 1-1-2 was forced to announce its error, revealing on Twitter that an air search of the supposed crash site showed it was really just a big tug boat pulling a ship.
Photographs believed to show the shipping vessel have been circulating on social media today, prompting a mixture of relief at the false alarm and ridicule at the Spanish archipelago's emergency services.
Sky News presenter Kay Burley tweeted: "Canary Islands emergency services mistook a ship for a crashed airliner... #ShouldHaveGoneToSpecSavers".
In a spooky coincidence, today is actually the anniversary of a crash between two planes in the Canary Islands.
On March 27, 1977, 583 people died when two Boeing 747 passenger planes collided at Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife.
Source: MailOnline
Author: Erin Tennant, Approving editor: Matthew Henry
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