Karl Smallman
A ‘CRASHED plane’ in the sea off the Spanish island of Gran Canaria sparked an international media frenzy today, before it was revealed to be a tug boat ferrying a ‘large object’.
Emergency rescue services were called to the scene after local media said an air craft had plunged into the sea.
The Canary Islands emergency services tweeted that a plane had landed in the water two miles from the coast of Jinamar, in Gran Canaria.
Reuters reported the news shortly afterwards, and it was then featured on the BBC, Sky News, and numerous other international news platforms.
“It’s not an airplane, it’s a big tug boat pulling a ship,” a spokeswoman for the Canary Islands emergency rescue team said, after the team had raised the false alarm.
Pictures taken from the shore showed a large object that at a distance strongly resembled the fuselage of an aircraft.
Today’s false alarm comes as the search for MH370, the plane that mysteriously disappeared traveling between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing, continues.
