situations

A man who relocated to Benidorm from the UK has shared three ‘dangerous situations’ he has found himself in since the move, and issued some advice to those planning to visit

A man who has “lived in Benidorm for at least seven or eight years” has shared three hair-raising moments that made him question his decision to move, and whether he should hotfoot it back to the UK.

Harry, known as @harrytokky on TikTok, regularly posts about his life in Benidorm – and recently shared the “most dangerous slash scariest situations” he’s found himself in while living in the Spanish party hotspot. However, he did admit that these things could definitely happen in other places and he said he wasn’t trying to put anybody off visiting Benidorm, as he loves his life there.

Almost being hit by a bus

“Yes, you heard, ran over,” Harry elaborated. He went on: “It was one of these back roads here in Benidorm where people drive at mental speeds, and to be honest, they were so close to hitting me.

“I literally had to run out of the way of the road, it was awful,” he said.

Unexpected police search

Harry recounted how he’d been stopped by police, and they “literally said random search” to him. He alleged they were looking for “the naughty stuff,” which Harry insisted he “didn’t have.”

“They did a full-on search on the side of the road here in Benidorm. I honestly thought they were going to handcuff me, chuck me in the back of a car and throw away the key,” Harry claimed.

Nearly being robbed

“This is definitely number one by far,” Harry divulged, explaining: “I was walking down one of the back alleys […] from the beach to the main road and a guy came up to me, shook my hand, twisted my arm around my back and all of this”.

He described the incident as an attempt to “rob” him of his possessions, labelling it as the “worst experience,” that would leave anyone rattled.

However, he clarified that his intention wasn’t to “scare anyone off Benidorm,” but rather to arm people with the awareness that such incidents can occur, enabling them to take precautions.

“Stuff like this does happen everywhere in the world,” Harry emphasised. “But because I live here, it’s happened to me, and I wanted to speak about it.”

Responding to a comment suggesting he’d led a “crazy life” in Benidorm, Harry added: “I know right, super crazy”.

Despite the incident, Harry highlighted some of the benefits of living in Benidorm – including the cheap McDonald’s.

As he sat outside, he announced: “And just like that, the food has arrived. Now you will not believe how cheap this was. We’ve got two meals here. Guess how much this costs? €11 (£9.53)”.

Harry went on to detail the contents of the meal, which included two portions of fries, two burgers, two drinks, and a side of chicken nuggets.

He enthused: “I mean, €11? What do you think guys? I think that’s an absolute bargain, let’s be honest. €11? In the UK, that’d probably be at least £20.”

A large Big Mac meal in the UK typically costs around £7.69, depending on location, while six chicken nuggets are priced at approximately £3.49.

While women hold just 10% of the pilot licences given out in the UK, they could actually be more adept than men at handling high-pressure situations in the cockpit

Female pilots may be better than their male counterparts at handling pressure during flight situations, a new study has revealed. The researchers, from the University of Waterloo in Canada, used a flight simulator to study 20 experienced pilots as they went through different scenarios.

The pilots wore eye-tracking glasses, which allowed the team of scientists to record where the participants were looking and how they responded. The flight tasks included unexpected engine failures and landing challenges, which were designed to test the pilots’ reactions under pressure.

“These findings are exciting because they push us to rethink how we evaluate pilots,” Naila Ayala, the study’s lead author, said.

She added: “We can’t assume that because two pilots are looking at the same things, they will react the same way. Our study shows that women may be better at keeping control and making decisions in stressful flight scenarios.”

The research found that female pilots tended to make fewer flight control errors when stress levels increased. This means that women were more consistent and accurate in how they responded to the information presented to them.

Suzanne Kearns, associate professor and director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, said: “Understanding how different people perform under pressure helps us build better training programs for everyone, safer cockpits, and more inclusive aviation systems.

“At a time when the industry is facing a pilot shortage, tapping into the full potential of all pilots, regardless of gender, is more important than ever.”

The team hopes that the research, published in the Proceedings of the 2025 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications, will help shape future pilot training.

According to the study, the women demonstrated more stable landing approaches, completed tasks faster in the emergency scenario, and had higher situation awareness ratings.

It explains: “These preliminary findings suggest that female pilots may manage task demands effectively under pressure and have important implications for addressing gender-based assumptions in training and recruitment.”

Last July, it was announced that there had been a 26% increase in the number of pilot licenses issued to women between 2019 and 2023.

Data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority showed that 239 pilot licences were issued to women in 2019, while this number rose to 301 four years later.

However, licences for women are still comparatively low as they make up just 10% of the total number given out. Bronwyn Fraser, the secretary of the British Women Pilots’ Association, said: “Women pilots bring diverse perspectives and skills.

But aviation is so much more than just flying. We have brilliant women engineers, air traffic controllers, and sustainability experts pushing the boundaries of innovation, developing new technologies and unlocking the full potential of our airspace.” Fraser explained that the UK needs “more young women in aviation”.