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A very good morning to the Spanish Civil Patrol, who have made my #FailureFriday mission easier this week by smacking into [checks notes] the runway lighting system at Gibraltar's airport.
What they thought they were doing on short finals remains a mystery, but the diplomatic protests will no doubt be nothing compared to the undiplomatic ones of their boss.
reshared this
Dreadnought Holiday
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •(in truth, we do know what they were doing partly because newspapers report they were chasing smugglers into British waters, but also because - excitingly - there's video)
youtu.be/Y31UR6wLi5Y?si=bFsPRy…
Guardia Civil boat smashes into runway lights following reported chase at sea
YouTubeJoão Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Dreadnought Holiday
in reply to João Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121) • • •In their defence they were flashing.
"Can you see any lights?"
"Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No..."
vieuxnez
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •@jt_rebelo
Five lights? No lights? Five lights? No li...
New-Cleckit Dominie
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •⁂ Fish Id Wardrobe
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Also, they don't seem to be chasing another boat?
Jon Hancock
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •"A spokesperson said all agents appear to be well and the vessel remains seaworthy…"
Seaworthiness standards appear to be a lot more flexible than I expected.
Andy Fletcher
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Fortunately it seems nobody was hurt but looking at the damage they were lucky the boat didn't sink on the spot.
It takes a certain sort of pilot to steer directly into two big flashing red lights. I suspect they will be asked some searching questions about their eyesight.
Certainly a good candidate for #FailureFriday
Colin Watson
in reply to Andy Fletcher • • •Dreadnought Holiday
in reply to Colin Watson • • •@cjwatson @X31Andy well...
Andy Fletcher
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Auscandoc
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Token Sane Person
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •@cjwatson @X31Andy Just for the benefit of non UK readers, Specsavers has a long running series of adverts where something dumb happens because of poor sight, followed by the strap line "should have gone to Specsavers". My favourite is the shepherd accidentally shearing his sheepdog.
This picture would have fitted in perfectly.
BashStKid
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •I can’t get over how they’ve steered into the lights.
“Hola, this is the patrol, pull over or be rammed”
“This is a runway, mate, your call”
Alexandra Lanes
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • •like this
Dreadnought Holiday, George Baily, a writer, LionelB, Habrok, Volker Stolz, Stevan, Wonderdog 🏳️🌈, Cumulonimbus, What's Betamax? 📼, JackTLadd, Jon Hancock, deraffe, RAK and Montessori Space Programme 🛸 like this.
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Rich Stein (he/him)
in reply to Alexandra Lanes • • •Alexandra Lanes
in reply to Rich Stein (he/him) • •Alan Bellingham
in reply to Alexandra Lanes • • •Alexandra Lanes likes this.
Alexandra Lanes
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • •like this
Dreadnought Holiday and RobertJackson like this.
Ariaflame
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •Phil Haigh
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •DelRider
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •To be fair to the boat operators, it is VERY easy to lose spatial orientation when boating at night. Without visual clues to help orient yourself, it's hard to tell how far or close you are to other objects, even flashing lights. Add in motion, other lights in the background, and focusing on trying to find/follow another boat and this is what may happen. Below is a picture from several years ago at Kent Island, Maryland. Speed played a factor here too (at night).
Dreadnought Holiday
in reply to DelRider • • •@DelRider worth noting that the loss of spatial awareness started well before the lights became a threat - it's really hard to crash into Gibraltan infrastructure when you stay in Spanish waters like you're supposed to...
(Without really going into the whole Gibraltar/Spain pissing contest, everyone knows where they're currently supposed to be even if the strict letter of the law gets overlooked or sometimes embarrassingly misplaced)
ottO
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •@zanchey
Montessori Space Programme 🛸
in reply to Dreadnought Holiday • • •