I am watching the election coverage on TV3, and they have just said that someone apparently made a threat to fly an aircraft into the Sky Tower in central Auckland. This is NZ’s tallest building. The latest update is that a plane has now crashed, in Kohimarama, a suburb near central Auckland!
They are unsure of the full situation as yet, but it sounds pretty bad.
By: Dave Homewood - 18th September 2005 at 00:57
Don’t you just love the world media?
Looking at headlines about this, some major overseas newspapers are working the words Terror Alert into the headlines and leaders. OK, so this incident which was sparked by a domestic dispute may have scared soe people,, but it needn’t be linked to terrorism when this has firmly been established as not the case.
Worst of all, Al Jazeera and NBC are saying the plane was “hijacked” – there’s a big difference between stealing a plane and hijacking it. Cor dear. It seems in the media today it’s not proper news unless it’s hyped up overblown news.
By: Newforest - 17th September 2005 at 17:07
http://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/news_index_skin/news_index_group
As the video link shows, although it is at night, the plane crashed into the sea and the pilot is now in hospital. There is a denial that the helicopter chasing the plane had anything to do with the crash.
By: Dave Homewood - 17th September 2005 at 13:34
I think your suspicion is right – it was dark, crashed in the sea and would have had a New Zealand ZK- serial I think, so I don’t think the photo matches the story. Thanks for the link though.
By: Nermal - 17th September 2005 at 13:28
Nothing on the BBC at the moment, and I suspect the picture on CBS is not of the actual aircraft…;) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/17/world/main856313.shtml – Nermal
By: Dave Homewood - 17th September 2005 at 11:42
More from teletext:
“Plane crashes after buzzing city
A light plane that had been threatening to crash into Auckland’s Sky Tower has crashed into the water off St Helier’s Beach.
The plane, which earlier flew over the central city, had been stolen from Ardmoe Airport.
The police helicopter has been following the plane after the pilot made unspecified threats.
The crash was close to National Party leader Don Brash’s house.”
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September 17, 2005 at 10:58 am