Sick Spanish website pokes fun at Brit tourist balcony fall deaths

A Spanish website dubbed “utterly vile” for ranking countries by death and injury balcony falls has courted more controversy by putting the “Royal Air Force” first in its ratings following the recent Ibiza deaths of two British tourists.

The Balearics Federation of Balconing used the military reference to confirm the UK had climbed to the top of its polemic league table as it vowed to continue with its summer tallies despite calls for it to be closed down. Teenage ice hockey star Gary Kelly died in the early hours of last Monday morning in a third-floor fall at the four-star Ibiza Rocks Hotelin the resort of San Antonio, a fortnight after fellow Scot Evan Thomson plunged to his death from the same hotel.

On April 27 a 19-year-old Italian tourist of Turkish origin plunged to her death from a fourth-floor at the hotel, owned by the Ibiza Rocks Group which is led by the British founders of island super club Manumission. Before her death from cancer in March, Scotland’s former minister for drug and alcohol policy Christina McKelvie had called for the closure of the federation’s website and X account, saying they were “utterly vile” and insisting: “It is reprehensible that anyone would seek to exploit and use tragic deaths in such a cruel manner.”

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The former MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse slammed the group, whose leaders have never revealed their identities, when she spoke out days after the August 20 2024 balcony fall death of 19-year-old law student Emma Ramsay who was born in McKelvie’s old constituency. The Balearics Federation of Balconing appeared to celebrate what it termed the “comeback” of British tourists on its ongoing rankings of deaths and injuries resulting from balcony falls in the region's holiday islands which include Majorca, Ibiza and Formentera.

Deaths constitute two points and injury one point in the federation’s league rankings, which also take into account the height holidaymakers plunge from. Reacting to the death nearly a week ago of 19-year-old Mr Kelly, from Dundee, the group said on its X site referencing its so-called ‘BalconLeague Balear 2025’ nations’ league.table putting the UK with six points ahead of Turkey and Germany on three each: ““The Royal Air Force is starting to gain distance in the standings and it’s not even August yet.”

It added in a subsequent post: “The only way to beat the British is this. And even then you can’t beat them on fallen floors.” The offensive message was written against a chart referencing the federation’s own statistics since it started gathering balcony fall figures - showing the UK is on 229 points against the Rest of the World on 260 with 51 deaths versus 64 respectively although Britain on 545 leads by one point in terms of the number of floors fallen: “

The federation reacted to the death of 26-year-old Evan Thomson, from Aberdeen, earlier this month by saying: “The British are repeating the incredible feat of last year. What a way to climb to 1st position in their BalconLeague25.

“Their honorary title of masters and lords of this sport is still valid..” In a subsequent post referencing the furore of last year over their balcony death comments, the federation added: “A Scot dies after falling from the sixth floor of a hotel in St Antoni. We are not remembering the case of 2024, it has happened again.

“Given the fuss that was made among the British about our broadcast and recount, this time we report it objectively. Tourist, go home happy.”

The federation still illustrates its social media with a Spanish newspaper cutting featuring the comments made in 2018 by a British consul who said: “Brits do not tend to live in flats with balconies and perhaps they are not used to them.”

It goes on to say, using the word ‘guiri’ which is a pejorative expression for a foreigner and for many Spaniards conjures up images of sunburnt drunken holidaymakers from countries like the UK: “Every tourist who comes to mess up our home falls into our classifications. Darwinistically against this tourism model.”

Overnight a federation member, who as always declined to be named, told a local paper: “There’s no formal structure. It’s very difficult to say how many of us there are.

“It’s known where it begins but not where it finishes. We like to define it as a collective toy.” With a composure that defied belief, he added in comments to Majorcan newspaper Ultima Hora: “We have tried to define a system of points that’s the simplest and most neutral possible.

“The cases that end in death are two points and those that end in injury one point. Then, for cases of draws, we also take into account the number of floors people fall.

“We have two tables, the one with the nationalities of the protagonists and another of the municipalities where the incidents occur.” Another, insisting the work they were doing was valuable, said: “In cases of death we are very careful to make sure our publications are not interpreted as an attack on the victim.

“We focus on the classification, on the phenomenon, not on the person’s life. We believe black humour can make others think. The official campaigns against this problem have not been effective.

“Part of our objective is to flag up these types of incidents using humour, which helps us to see better what our home has become thanks to this type of tourist model which is so wild. We at least believe we have contributed to people becoming aware of the scale of the problem.

“We’re not afraid of being closed down. We’re going to carry on doing what we’re doing whether it’s in public or in private. Personally we think killing the messenger is not the solution to the problem.”