Storm Eunice took over the UK yesterday, leaving people forced to remain at home. Wind gusts of up to 122mph raged on for hours, creating less than ideal weather conditions.
Many football fixtures across Europe were called off, and those stranded at home quickly found a new hobby – Plane Spotting!
Over 150,000 viewers tuned into ‘Big Jet TV’, a YouTube channel dedicated to live streaming plane spotting, founded by aviation enthusiast Jerry Dyer.
Many from the football fraternity flooded to the live stream and watched along as expert pilots fought precarious conditions and made sure the landing gears hit the tarmac safely.
Each landing saw celebrations that only football fans are capable of and of course, Footy Twitter was all over it.
Football metaphors and parallels were quickly drawn, and the worlds of aviation and footy crossed over.
Where’s the love for minnows? –
While Plane Spotting isn’t exactly the most popular of hobbies, starting off by watching landings at Heathrow Airport really is the equivalent of beginning one’s football journey by watching the Premier League elite.
It’s long been a complaint against football fans that they pay no attention to grassroots football or even Sunday Leagues for that matter. Many took the narrative, added an aviation-themed spin to it, and delivered some truly hilarious takes –
130,000 people watching the planes land on Big Jet TV but how many of them will bother going down to their local, grassroots airfield next weekend?
How often have you heard the term ‘football Heritage’? For the unversed, the term essentially refers to an activity that is so frequent and iconic in its nature, that its heritage at this point.
A prime example is a classic Jose Mourinho rant, it occurs often and is so potent every single time. The parallel drawn here refers to the consecutive precise landings curated by the pilots, an activity that was iconic yesterday, and now it is etched into the culture of Big Jet Tv forever.
Planes hit the runaways at Heathrow in quick succession, leading to a creating degree of confusion as viewers couldn’t keep track of all the landings.
This tweet likens the affair to Chris Kamara’s classic moment of bewilderment during Portsmouth’s game against Blackburn beck in 2010. The moment occurred on Soccer Saturday as presenter Jeff Sterling went to Chris Kamara for an update on the game.
Kamara, with a look of pure perplexity on his face, turned around and uttered the now-iconic phrase “I don’t know Jeff”.
Squawka Football, a Twitter account popular for posting footy stats you never knew you needed, also added an aviation-themed spin to one of their standard tweets.
Qatar Airways A380 attempted more landings (3) than the two Emirates A380s needed combined (2).
The Emirates pilots putting on a clinic on Big Jet TV. 👏
Much has been said by football purists on the topic of the newest generation of football fans. They can be frequently be seen lamenting how newer football fans are mere bandwagoners and ‘tourists’. Similarly, it’s safe to assume plane spotting regulars felt the same about the thousands who tuned into Big Jet Tv yesterday.
The ‘proper’ airport going fans fuming at all the tourists tuning in to Big Jet TV today.
There are very few fanbases that are as passionate as the Gooner fraternity. Supporters of the London Reds frequently liken themselves to top tier detectives (which they aren’t) as they begin deducing the tiniest of details. They were the butt of the joke in this tweet, although it certainly won’t discourage them from finding out exactly what Mikel Arteta needs.
Arsenal fans discovering Big Jet TV is gonna be massive for the summer
When Clive Tyldesley speaks, you listen. The legendary commentator was evidently aboard the Big Jet Tv train and even stated concerns for the future of football. While it certainly won’t dethrone the viewership of football, it does make one wonder if it’s the ‘next’ big hobby.
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