In a serious case of what were they thinking, the Zimbabwe Civil Aviation Authority held a massive air safety drill at Harare airport, but forgot to tell anyone else. When smoke was seen from miles away, reporters were told that a plane from London had been involved in an accident. The spokesperson even confirmed the accident to Reuters, who started reporting the news on their online services which obviously triggered quite a bit of panic.

At a press conference to discuss the "crash", the airport operator admitted that it was actually just a drill, and that telling the media the accident was real was all part of their brilliant plan.

I'm really confused about this one - I can understand wanting your drill to appear as real as possible, but to tell the international press that a flight has indeed crashed may be taking things a little too far.

Still, I guess it is always a good thing for an airport to practice their safety procedures, and in the end, nobody died during this event.

[Photo credit: AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi]

Filed under: Africa, Zimbabwe, Airlines, Airports