Zimbabwe fools media with accident report

AROUND the world, the news went out: Plane accident in Zimbabwe, black smoke on runway, ambulances screaming in.

Except the disaster never happened. Harare airport authorities tricked the public and the media into believing a security drill yesterday was a crash to make the drill and the emergency response seem more real.

It’s a practice that’s been used elsewhere, but is seen as especially risky in a world where panic is only a few tweets or clicks away.