By MICHAEL SLOVANOS
CAIRNS News shut down the comments debate the last time the flat earth topic reared its head – for good reason.
This time I am forced to respond to a particularly grievous accusation by a commenter who ironically goes by the moniker “truth = enlightenment” (T=E) who accused me of inventing the existence of airline flights that skirt Antarctica between Australia and South America.
According to flat earth maps, the most direct route from Australia to South America is north over Japan and the Bering Sea and then south over California on to Santiago, Chile.
The actual route traveled as demonstrated on FlightTracker and confirmed by flight details provided by Qantas is an apparent arc that goes south from Sydney, below New Zealand’s South Island and skirting the Antarctic continent before arcing back towards Santiago Chile.
The flight path arc represented on the FlightTracker digital map is the actual curvature of the earth between the two locations. The airlines describe it as a “great circle distance” of 11,363 km, which usually takes just under 12 hours.
“T=E” and his flat earth community would have us believe that the “normal route” is in fact the flat earth example (see inset diagram) because Qantas jets are known to stop at Los Angeles on their way to South America.
Yes, sometimes they do, but not because it’s the quickest, most direct route. To the contrary it takes about twice as long to get to Santiago from Australia via LA.
When I pointed out to “T=E” that Qantas and Latam flights can be shown taking the near-Antarctic route he called them “bullshit flights”. I asked him if he would like to put money on it, but advised him he would certainly lose.
“T=E” then refused to accept the obvious truth that Qantas and Latam do these flights regularly, and on the day in particular I linked to, both airlines were doing the Sydney-Santiago route in proximity of each other – double proof if you like.
I then showed “T=E” the full details of the Qantas flight, with estimated and actual departure and arrival times, flight number, flight average distance and time, plane registration code and model – a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
But that was not enough for our flat earther, who continued to slander me with the accusation “your bullshit flights”. I would normally brush off such nonsense, but if that is a standard argument of the flat earth community then it should be exposed for the utter baloney that it is.
Perhaps “T=E” should have listened to his fellow flat earther Jeran, who, when taken to Antarctica by jet to witness the 24-hour sun, had the humility to admit “Sometimes, you are wrong, and I thought there was no 24-hour sun, in fact I was pretty sure of it … I honestly believed there was no 24-hour sun, now I honestly believe there is.”
Unfortunately I don’t have the spare cash to pay for a return flight to South America for our Victorian “T=E”. But before accusing us of making things up for the sake of a narrative he should check the facts.
Or is “T=E” so delusional as to think that Qantas and Latam are posting false details of their weekly flights to make their customers think they are traveling around a globe earth?
Cairns News doesn’t need to waste time arguing against stupidity and the Editor may well again be forced to stop this debate in its tracks.
I should add that the flat vs globe debate does raise many interesting and valid geotechnical and geophysical issues. But when a debate descends into slanderous and false accusations it’s time to call time out.
