Do Manchester journalists have a map, or a globe?
 

From Holiday jet passengers diverted to remote Canadian airport on flight back to Manchester - Manchester Evening News

Gander Airport is actually on the island of Newfoundland, which is part of the Canadian Province of "Newfoundland and Labrador".

The WEST coast? Guess they overflew Los Angeles and Vancouver on their way to ...

Er, Nova Scotia, is actually to the South West of Newfoundland (the island), It is to the south of Labrador.

Gander is on Newfoundland, a long, long way south of the most northerly point of 'Atlantic Canada'. It fact Gander is at 48 degrees N, slightly to the south of that most northerly city of the UK - London.

Edited to add: Here is FlightAware's track: Thomas Cook (MT) #109 ? 02.02.2015 ? MKJS / MBJ - EGCC / MAN ? FlightAware

Unsurprising. Press just dont have a clue. You think they would be able to run it by someone. After all there's no shortage of aviation 'experts' willing to go in record over events. My personal favourite is when pax are 'delayed for here hours on the runway'. Just basics they can't get right.

if you'd ever met a journo (or worse a TV person) all would be clear

they have the general knowledge of a hamster

Harsh? As a journalist myself, I was horrified and amused on a recent flight to hear a man who described himself as a BBC producer comment at how amazing the plane's engines were, because they were powerful enough to lift the plane into the air.

General knowledge fail...

Heathrow Harry, as a hamster myself, I resent your comment! Kindly refrain from associating intelligent rodents with journalists.

That is a huge pet peeve of mine too. I was slated on another thread for complaining about the inaccuracy of a journalist writing such. No doubt someone will be along soon to tell me off and to defend a journalist's right to not getting their facts correct...

Non-racist maps
 

They probably use Politically Correct non-racist maps[1] for navigation and get lost and non-racist sauce[2] on their buns and starve.

Yes, apparently Mercator projection maps are racist, as is a certain popular sauce. Who knew?

[1] The Economist explains: Why world maps are misleading | The Economist
[2] Guardian journalists fail to protect their sauces » Spectator Blogs

Well, a great circle map might help them:

Great Circle Mapper

116 miles further with the diversion ...

Hamsters all - I apologize


I have an infestation of meeja in my (extended) family and some of them are as bright as Hamsters - but overall............... perhaps cockroaches or leaches ......................

Map? Globe? No, just a whippet with an extending lead ...

In the interests of understanding and mutual niceness, I'm tempted to mount a small defence of journalism as it's currently practised. Hard hat on, here goes...

While a small handful of journos may be ignorant scumbags, most are hard-working, honest folk trying to earn a crust in the face of free content on the Internet, freelance rates that haven't changed in 20 years, and publishers who cut pay and staffing levels, yet expect employees to produce ever more content for a bewilderingly huge variety of platforms.

The result is less and less time available to research and write stories with increasing reliance of Wikipedia and press releases. Nick Davies' book Flat Earth News catalogues this phenomenon in forensic detail.

Some of this may be familiar to joystick jockeys - see the recent thread about lowering status and pay...

West Coast of America? Not understanding Great Circle routes?

Methinks this journalist is not in the right business.

Perhaps a tad unfair in this instance.

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-c...orth-and-south

A journalist is someone who has been trained to write about things they know nothing about.