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

“This was an extremely dangerous thing for him to do. If he had continued to cling in there with the aircraft taking off at over 200 per hour, he might have fallen out and could have been sucked up by an engine. If he had survived that and was in the wheel well when the landing gear was retracted, he could have been crushed by the mechanism. And if not he very likely would have frozen to death during the 15 1/2 hour flight at 30,000 feet while wearing no clothes.”

Source: LAX spokeswoman Nancy Castles, commenting on a 31-year old Canadian man who was turned away at the Qantas ticket counter because he didn't have a valid credit card. Castles says the man then took off all his clothes, was able to climb the perimeter fence, negotiate three strands of barbed wire at the top, then run floppity-flop right up to an aircraft and climb inside the wheel well of a departing Qantas 747. He was eventually coaxed out and arrested, leaving behind questions about how a naked man could get onto the field in the first place.

FMI: www.lawa.org/lax/laxframe.html