Aero-News: Quote of the Day

ANN's Quote of the Day usually derives from current news, though we reserve the right to pick quotes out of history that have a bearing on the day's events and issues.

Sometimes, you'll find them timely and in keeping with the content of the day's news... and sometimes, they'll just be thought-provoking.

Reader suggestions and comments are welcome... and if particularly intriguing, timely, or poignant, may themselves become future Quotes of the Day.

Let us hear from you, folks!

Aero-News Quote of the Day

"Oh, I guess it's because I proved I'm as human as everybody else, unfortunately. We were trying to make the best decisions we could as a team and we basically left the final decision just a little bit too late and, for safety's sake, the best decision was to come back here to McMurdo. We had thought we could continue on and maybe land on one of the basins over on the Arctic peninsular, but when you are 10 hours away, the weather over there can be very, very fickle and you wouldn't want to wind up in that part of the world with low fuel, so the only real safe option was to come back here."

Source: Australian aviation adventurer Jon Johanson, speaking to Australia's ABC Network from Antarctica. After becoming the first person ever to cross the South Pole in a homebuilt, fixed-wing aircraft, Johanson was forced to land at McMurdo-Scott Base, a joint facility operated by the US and New Zealand. There, he was refused the fuel he needed to get home, sparking a feud between the two countries and Australia. Johanson was supposed to leave Saturday morning for New Zealand, after fellow adventurer-pilot Polly Vacher donated the fuel she'd socked away at the polar station for her own aborted attempt to circumnavigate the globe from pole to pole.

FMI: http://users.chariot.net.au/~theburfs/jjohanson.html