> Meanwhile on the ground, events were taking an unexpected turn. On Batam Island in Indonesia, debris from the №2 engine plunged into a populated area shortly after the failure, resulting in surprise and alarm. Among the debris was a large portion of the failed IP turbine disk, which fell with such force that it cleaved straight through a building, razing a brick wall. Thankfully, no one on Batam was hurt by the debris. However, photographs of locals holding airplane wreckage in what appeared to be Qantas livery were soon posted to Twitter, where they were taken as indications that a Qantas airplane had actually crashed somewhere over Batam. Qantas engineers already knew that the plane was still flying, but they were unable to contact the crew to find out more information. And outside that bubble, the news that a Qantas A380 had possibly gone down spread so quickly that even investors reacted while the plane was still in the air. In fact, the first time Qantas’s CEO learned of the situation was when he received a call asking why the company’s stock price was dropping.
Information flies so fast in the modern world. There is a classic XKCD about learning about an earthquake via Twitter moments before the ground starts shaking.