“Fear of flying: the spectre that haunts modern life” (New Review, last week, page 18) said “the whole of London’s airspace was closed for more than an hour on 12 December”. We should clarify that while airspace capacity was restricted after an air traffic control computer fault forced about 100 flights to be cancelled, it was never closed. The same article referred to Russian jets flying without transponders “so as not to be traced on radar”. These aircraft would have their transponders switched off to avoid identification, not to make them invisible to radar.
Cats the musical first opened in the West End in 1981, not 1982 (“Brillig Beasts, slithy pussies”, New Review, last week, page 30).
Apologies to AZED crossword fans – no. 2,221 (New Review, last week, page 39) gave an incorrect clue at 20 across. It should read: Like the deepest sea beds, wherein to find a special goby’s swimming (13).
Plurals corner: “The alliance is exploring whether the algae is [are] effective…”; “Dead algae has [have] been used…” (“Biofuel project brings new life to Cornish mine”, News, last week, page 16) and, mea culpa, “no data was [were] forthcoming” (Readers’ editor, last week, page 34).
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, tel 020 3353 4656 or email reader@observer.co.uk
