Sensationalism You Can Count On

At the close of their 6pm newscast (they call them "shows") WANE-15 breathlessly told us of breaking news. A plane had crashed at Smith Field and told us a crew was on the way to cover the carnage. 

As it turned out, an antique light aircraft (solidly on the ground) had lurched 15-20 feet and stuck a light pole, when the motor unexpectedly engaged during a maintenance procedure. 
While there was a "crash" involving an airplane, it did not fall thousands of feet from the sky, resulting in damage and death that WANE-15's reporting had implied might be the case. 

Other local media did not use the word "crash", instead, they stated the facts with little or no "shock and awe" as WANE-15's presentation seemed to portray.

 

It can be argued that the Smith Field incident might qualify as a "plane crash" in the academic sense, but there can be no argument that the kids in the million-dollar WANE-15 newsroom clearly played fast and loose with this story in order to add "sizzle" the story for fun and profit.