Before I begin, I’d like to express my sincere condolences to the families of the victims of Spanair flight 5022 and to the employees of the airline, government officials, emergency workers and investigators who will be handling the aftermath. I’ve been in your shoes.
Anytime a large commercial airliner crashes — no matter where it happens — it’s guaranteed to make headlines. Unfortunately, in their zeal to outgun the competition, various media outlets engage in a gut-wrenching, heartless frenzy of reporting initial information that is often inaccurate, without regard for the impact it might have on the families of the victims.
Take the case of yesterday’s accident in Madrid. Looking back at the news feeds over the course of the day, the number of fatalities (and hence the implied number of survivors) fluctuated wildly. Here’s a chronology, all times are Eastern Daylight:
11:00 A.M. 7 fatalities
12:00 P.M. 45 fatalities
2:00 P.M. 100 fatalities
2:30 P.M. 140 fatalities
3:00 P.M. 147 fatalities
10:37 P.M. 153 fatalities
1:30 A.M. (August 21) 100 fatalities
1:32 A.M. 153 fatalities
Having been involved in the process myself, I can attest to the fact that accounting for victims and survivors is no quick task. It’s relatively easy to tell who was onboard in the first place — look at the number of tickets you collected.
What’s not easy is determining the number of survivors. The victims aren’t necessarily all taken them to the same hospital. Some of the uninjured have even been known to walk away and leave, as in the case of the Air France accident in Toronto in 2005. Everyone survived that crash, and some customers flagged down passersby on a nearby highway for rides to the terminal building.
I’ve read of a few accidents, primarily in Africa, where the uninjured simply left the scene and went home, leaving their names in the “unaccounted for and presumed dead” column for a long time. It’s not their fault, though. I’d probably do the same thing if I were lucky enough to be able to.
Speculation regarding the cause of the accident is equally wild.
There was reportedly a problem with an air intake valve prior to the Spanair flight’s takeoff, which was apparently addressed prior to departure. That valve is located underneath the cockpit. Witnesses report seeing an explosion coming from one of the engines, which are located at the rear of the MD-82 aircraft involved in the accident. Yet another source cites the inadvertent deployment of an engine thrust reverser as a potential cause. The aircraft’s “black boxes” have only just been recovered.
Nobody knows the cause yet; hence, nobody should be trying to report on it. Period. Speculation on the cause of the accident, let alone reporting it in the media, is premature and is only being done to sell more newspapers than the next guy.
Shame on you, media.
