Fiji Storm Photo by Andrew Ingersoll
The passenger aircraft was fully loaded and in the air after takeoff when the announcement came over the loudspeaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been working on a fully automatic piloting system for years that doesn’t need a flight crew and are proud to announce that it has been perfected. You are the first passengers to fly controlled by software only with nobody in the cockpit. We are proud that during all our testing there has never been a mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, mistake, …”
On one particular flight the pilot had hammered his plane into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, give a smile, and a “Thanks for flying XYZ airline.”
In light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment, but no one seemed annoyed. Finally everyone had gotten off except for one little old lady walking with a cane. She approached and asked conspiratorially, “Sonny, mind if I ask you a question?”
“Why no Ma’am, what is it?”
“Did we land or were we shot down?”
