To read Tuesday’s shock announcement, it could have been one of the worst rail disasters in history — 102 killed and 380 injured in an explosion on a high-speed passenger service.
But France’s SNCF train operator had merely taken a test of its internal accident procedures a little too far, even to the stage of releasing news of the simulated explosion on its public Internet site.
People logging into the company site, already under fire over a recent security flaw that released private customer data to hackers, saw news of a dire tragedy on a TGV express cutting through the Burgundy wine country.
Sent by mistake during a drill, the notice on sncf.com informed users with precision that “victims had been taken to Macon hospital and rescue services, including medical teams and psychologists, are on the scene”.
The message was on the homepage for about 45 minutes, but the national carrier said it had not received a single telephone call from concerned members of the public.
“No accident has taken place! A dozen times a year, we test out scenarios like this from our headquarters or in the regions, scenarios which are completely made up,” a spokesperson blushed.
Another company official added: “We go as far as possible in our simulations, and this time we went a little bit too far!” — AFP