Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2014; it discusses a video clip that was circulating on social media at that time, and the events described were current then.
Watch: The short clip of the beach landing
Social media users keep sharing this video as if it were real, even turning the pilot of this spectacular landing into a legend and building plenty of stories around the video and the incident that supposedly forced the emergency landing. In reality, it is one of the first adverts created with the aim of going viral, and it was made in 2008 (if not earlier).
The reason it has fooled people is that the video has been cut, so what we see is a short version in which every detail has been taken care of: a person who was filming and accidentally comes across the emergency landing, a woman screaming in panic, and apparently ordinary people running off the beach.
Some arguments could be used to pick apart the video’s credibility. For example, at that speed, the plane is still overhead when the amateur cameraman turns round, and it doesn’t cause any noticeable movement in the sea. But I think it would be quicker to show the almost complete video, in which we can see how it ends once the plane has landed and its door opens. This is the one-minute version, and as you can see, what happens is not exactly what you would expect after an emergency landing.
Watch: The one-minute version of the video
I can’t remember exactly what was being advertised, and I haven’t managed to find out.
Featured image: Richie Diesterheft from Santa Barbara, CA, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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