Plane crashes

In which we examine the relative importance of plane crashes to the BBC and British media

August 2 - An Air France plane crashes into Canada - everyone is saved

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4740381.stm

August 14 - A plane crashes killing 121 Cypriots

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4150312.stm

August 16 - A plane crashes killing 160 largely French nationals

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4156224.stm

August 2 - The BBC is wetting itself with the images, the miraculous stories and the sensation of the day. The crash is on the front page of the Metro, London's leading free newspaper.

August 14 - BBC News 24 reports on almost nothing else all day. Monday's Metro includes a full front page photo of the crash.

August 16 - Although more people have died, the crash makes it to a short article on approximately page 8 of the Metro, while there is a miniature reference to it on the BBC website front page.

It seems to us that this difference in reporting must be the result of one of three things:

(a) you can have too much of a good thing. Plane crashes are now officially boring.

(b) there weren't nearly as good pictures for the Venezuela crash; or

(c) Deep down, we still hate the French. So what if they crash.

Perhaps someone can think of some other explanation.