Lorraine Kelly leaves passengers stunned after making surprise inflight announcement
Lorraine Kelly provided surprise inflight entertainment to fellow passengers heading to the Orkney 2025 Island Games.
The Queen of morning TV was aboard Loganair's Dundee to Kirkwall flight last week ahead of the much anticipated Island Games.
The TV legend, who is a frequent visitor to the island, left passengers stunned when she gave a surprise address to passengers.
Excited to take to the PA system, the TV host welcomed fellow passengers to the flight ahead of its journey. Her announcement was received with applause from those onboard.
The 65-year-old ITV host said: 'Hi everybody I'm Lorraine Kelly and I want to welcome you on this Loganair flight. Of course we have just landed in Dundee and we are on our way to Kirkwall.
'This is the last call for the Orkney Island Games. I hope you all have a brilliant time. I've just always wanted to do this, this is super cool so thank you so much. Enjoy, you'll love Orkney, it's the best place in the world.'
Kelly is an ambassador for the 20th edition of the games, which started today. The games sees athletes from 24 islands around the world compete across 12 sports over a week-long event.
The games, which began in 1985 on the Isle of Man, were due to be officially opened today by the Princess Royal.
Loganair is the Official Airline Partner of the 20th International Island Games.
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BBC News
33 minutes ago
- BBC News
Why do islands around the world compete?
It's not obvious why islanders feel the urge to compete with each other. But they 20th Island Games being held in Orkney brings people together from the smaller isles around Britain and some distant seagirt lands, mostly with links to Britain or What have they got in common? The Island Games Federation offers an answer. "There's just something about islanders," its website declares."Growing up in small communities surrounded and shaped by the sea instils in us an independent spirit, a fierce pride in our culture and heritage — perhaps even a touch of stubbornness. "It's what gives Games competitors the will and determination to train hard, defy the odds and reach for gold". There's certainly truth to the argument that they share cultures long protected by the sea from outside influences. The word "insularity" - literally an island mindset - has been borrowed and distorted to describe a lack of interest in the world many island stories are defined by the numbers who leave, taking their collective voice to centres of power and often remitting their earnings and investments back common heritage also has to do with looking to the oceans for a living from seafood, seafaring and tourism. Among the Island Games competitors, they can also claim to be treated distantly by governments in London, Edinburgh and Copenhagen. The history of art department at St Andrews University is leading a project to hear such island stories across oceans, mainly linking Scottish islands with the year, it brought a group of young people from Barbados to the Isle of to Jamie Allan Brown, a St Andrews researcher, the focus was on passing down generations' "traditional ecological knowledge, especially about local plants and wildlife, language and place names, and living off the land and sea".The University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) has a master's degree course in island studies, in which you can learn about the intertwined social, cultural, economic and environmental issues that concern Scottish also draws comparisons with others in the Baltic, the Faroes and Canada's Atlantic coast. Around half of the independent members of the United Nations can be considered islands, including the UK and Ireland. Some are classified as small and developing and they form a block of 39 nations within the UN, mostly in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian what do they have in common? It may seem easier to see the differences - tropical to polar, volcanic or sandy, sovereign or dependent, valued or neglected, rich or poor, and with often complex interactions between the indigenous and the there are growing reasons for islanders to get together to celebrate a common bond of island-ness, and to combine forces in common causes. Climate change The voice of micro-nations has never been heard as loud as it is when they get together at the COP summits. The forums gave prominence to national leaders from the Pacific and Caribbean, highlighting the risk islands face from rising sea levels and the increasing incidence of extreme a sovereign nation that rises out the Pacific Ocean to a height of only five metres, is expected to be mainly under water at high tide within only 25 years. 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He says Scotland is also setting an example that's being watched in Greece, South Korea and Italy for "island-proofing" he had grown up on the English-Welsh border, his interest in island economies was sparked by the higher cost of power when he went to work in the Caribbean. Power bills per unit can be up to five times higher than those in larger countries, usually due to the lack of scale when installing and running an oil-burning power station. That's changing, he points out. The harnessing of wind, solar and tidal energy can make islands self-sufficient in power, and the falling cost of long sub-sea cables should make it possible for more exporting of islanders know a lot about that, sharing a familiar tale around the world where islanders see wind turbines taking over their horizon but little of the benefit accruing to the island or Orcadians never tire of reminding us, they have the widest range of renewable power sources, including the EMEC marine technology testing centre, but still have higher power bills than other parts of Ellsmoor sees possibilities from island enterprises using their networks to build markets for island-specific answers to net zero questions. 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Extended families on its islands are being broken up by out-migration and it is looking to other islands to learn lessons of supporting the economy and social structures around its has also been a dominant issue for Caribbean islands, bringing demographic problems back home, but also that large network of an island's supporters and investors. However aircraft and ships are not only taking people away. There are a lot of arrivals. 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