Saturday, January 9, 2010

Candidate for Wackiest Note of the Year/Decade


"I thought I was going to die, we were so high up," the card said. "I thought to myself: I hope we don't crash and burn or worse yet landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet, end up on some place like Gilligan's Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters, speaking of headhunters, why do they just eat outsiders, and not the family members? Strange ... and what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight and we plumited (sic) to earth, landed on Gilligan's Island and then lived through it, and the only woman there was Mrs. Thurston Howell III? No Mary Anne (my favorite) no Ginger, just Lovey! If it were just her, I think I'd opt for the sharks, maybe the headhunters."
This was apparently written by a guy who, because of his anxiety, caused a Hawaii bound flight to return to Oregon and escorted by a couple of USAF planes.

The guy showed incredibly poor judgment, after getting pissed off that he could not keep his bag under his seat in the exit aisle.  Couldn't they have moved him to a non-exit seat? Shouldn't they have? 

Is this an over-reaction?  Can flights be turned around and escorted just because a guy seems a bit nuts?  This note suggests what?  That he was obsesses with Gilligan's Island and had apparently not seen Lost, Survivor or other more recent takes on being stranded on a desert isle?

I guess pilots have to be risk averse, but perhaps some discretion is in order.  Have the head flight attendant or the co-pilot talk to the guy and then decide if he is just scared or a threat?
"Johnson stated that he didn't think anyone would open it during the flight," the affidavit added. "He told me that he thought the card was going to be taken back to an office somewhere, opened, and everyone in the room would 'get a laugh' from it, and that perhaps he'd even get some frequent flyer miles out of it. Johnson stated he didn't intend to scare anyone and he would not have written his name on the card if it was a threat. Johnson stated that he felt bad about what had happened and that he was sorry."
 Um.  Oy.

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