BARNEGAT – “Look! Up In The Sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… It’s a distress signal. It’s a UFO? It’s an airliner on fire? Did a jet crash on Route 72? No, a small plane! What are you stupid? Thanks Karen. Wait, what is it?” As of right now, it appears to have been a whole lot of nothing.
To say it was unnecessary panic could be an understatement. Social media pages were all abuzz on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 7, after reports surfaced that an aircraft of some kind may have crashed in Barnegat in a wooded area off Route 72. The authorities were careful to state the facts: they had an unconfirmed report of a small aircraft crashing, they were investigating and they would update everyone with information as soon as they had it.
Police, fire and emergency rescue personnel sprang into action, news crews from around the tri-state area descended on Southern Ocean County, traffic on 72 backed up near the staging area – all while concerned residents, unlicensed sleuths and keyboard warriors ate each other up alive on Facebook. Thankfully, despite several hours of speculation, it appears it was just a false alarm.
There were no missing planes, no missing people, no injuries, and no fatalities. Thank God! What we did get was a kaleidoscope of colorful comments on posts – some friendly, some not so friendly. Some offered thoughts and prayers and the use of their personal drones for the authorities to aid in the search and rescue while others called people horrible things, spread complete falsities, and even managed to bring politics into the mix.
Some even criticized the police for not releasing enough information during the early stages of the probe. The scanner pages had unfiltered discussion threads that would make your head spin, especially if you work for a reputable media outlet trying to report only truths and not the opinions and pontifications of the masses. While Micromedia Publications tries to make sure that the news we cover is fair, balanced and factual, our focus was to find out the truth before reporting anything about the incident. Some other local news outlets picked up the story when details were scarce – leading to more confusion, clickbait headlines and little information worth being placed in a news post.
So, just what did happen? Police say that a report came in from an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) but there were no missing planes, no aircrafts in distress and there was nothing actually wrong. Emergency crews did what they do best – they responded, investigated and put out the truth of what they knew before heading home.
While the probe continues into what caused the distress signal, what we learned from this event was a good lesson for everyone – calm down and stay connected to officials & authorities who have the real information, not people who are trying to stir the broth for ad click revenue, likes and followers. Also, it can be dangerous for anyone to post info that isn’t properly vetted or is an opinion disguised as a fact.
The local media has a responsibility to the public – to be accurate. It also means that you don’t have to be first to break a story – just be truthful and if someone is actively spreading misinformation, stop it in its tracks.
I would like to personally thank all of the emergency responders who went to the scene and who always help to keep us all safe.
If and when the authorities release more information, we will of course pass it on.
