Remember - You Heard it Here First

Okay, so I was watching the news this morning before bringing Son to school. No big deal. Most of the time I only half watch it anyway. There just isn't that much going on that I care to hear about.

One of the newsworthy events I have been marginally following has been the incident where a NW Airlines air bus overshot Minneapolis by 150 miles. Although I do not (can't afford it and have no place to go) fly, I found the idea that a commercial airline could miss its destination by 150 miles intriguing. What could cause such a thing? Turns out the pilots were so engaged with their laptop/s they ignored everything else. What a comforting thought!

They were alerted to their error when one of the flight attendants came to inquire about the estimated time of arrival. That was when the pilots realized they were now in Wisconsin air space and took steps to get back to where they belonged.

So the news is on this morning, and one of the anchors announces proudly, "We have an exclusive interview with the flight attendant who brought the mistake to the pilots' attention."

Generally, these kinds of things are pretty pitiful. I mean, don't you just love it when something happens in Japan and the local news people interview someone who knows someone who had a cousin who heard of someone who went to Japan back in 1977? But this, I thought, just might be good. After all, the flight attendant was actually there. She was the one who got the pilots to turn around before they entered Canadian air space and had to be shot down as a terrorist threat. So this is how the interview went. The flight attendant was smiling and nice (that training pays off) as she was entering her house.

Reporter: Did you know what was going up there?

Flight Attendant: No.

Reporter: Did they (pilots) tell you anything?

Flight Attendant: No.

End of interview.

Wow! Had I been watching any other news this morning I would have missed that. I thought it was worth passing on to the world. After all, breaking news like this shouldn't be hidden under a bushel.

Next comes the interview with the woman who's sister's brother-in-law has a friend who visited somebody someplace who actually flew on an airplane back in 1966.