Zimbabwe Plane Crash Only A Drill. Zimbabwe’s aviation officials and news agencies false information Thursday that a Boeing 767 from London, was involved in an accident at the airport in Harare, “he told reporters then rushed to the scene was not the only maneuver.

David Chawota, Chief executive officer ,of the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, and provided information to make the drill realistic.

“News and Media is part of this process, I wanted to see how they would react and the media,” he said in a news conference at the main Harare International airport.

“In this event, and the drilling was successful, because all our systems worked perfectly. The police, security and hospital staff responded quickly,” side by side with the media.

News media all over the world had picked up news of the 'accident' and many anxious relatives of passengers who had travelled on the the Air Zimbabwe flight forom London jammed company phones at the London office looking for news. The first to give a more accurate update was the British Foreign office that later announced that the incident was just a drill.

Zimbabwean officials have been carrying regular drills for a long time without any major repercussions, with the media being advised on a timely basis of such activities. The Zimbabwean officials might have underestimated the developing power of the internet which seemed to have been responsible for world-wide distribution of information about the 'accident'.

It’s not the first time aviation officials in Africa, organized the training involving the development of the media.

Found in 2006, Kenyan officials told reporters that a passenger plane crashed near the Nairobi airport with 80 people on board – but when I arrived, told reporters that he was only a practice drill. There were similar concerns at the airport in Nairobi in 2002.

By Oliver Farirayi