As if that were not enough, a Brazilian C-130 Hercules military transport plane has remained stranded near the runway of Chile's airbase here since it crash-landed in 2014.

But Flint the cocker spaniel went against all his natural instincts to befriend a tiny sparrow which had tumbled out of its nest and crash-landed in the garden in Wiltshire, UK.

Eventually, Whorf's theory crash-landed on hard facts and solid common sense, when it transpired that there had never actually been any evidence to support his fantastic claims.