"There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters." Daniel Webster

Friday, January 16, 2009

Really?

James Taranto quoted this story on best of the Web today and didn't even mention anything odd about this part:
"You don't want to hit the water too quickly or the plane will break into pieces", says first officer Tom Hanks of DHL, who flies Boeing 757s for the courier company.



Maybe that really is the guy's name. But in "Cast Away," the famous Tom Hanks played an employee of another courier comany who is marooned when his plane crashes and breaks apart in the Pacific Ocean.

2 comments:

ron said...

"I'm the captain of a jet with dead engines, I'm augering in on glide power alone in an attempt to ditch this thing into the sea and I've got a guy in the cockpit with me named Tom Hanks....

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."

ron said...

OK, I misread that. It would've been too rich if that was really Cpt. "BrassBalls" Sullenberger's co-pilot.

I think I know how this happened:
"Hey, I'm a reporter and the receptionist transferred me to you when I told her I needed to speak to a pilot. Would you mind giving me some quotes about what it takes to successfully ditch a plane at sea?"
"Um, sure."
"OK, let me get your name..."
"You wanna know about putting a plane down into the water? ... Yea, my name's... uh... Tom Hanks. Yea, that's it, Cpt. Tom Hanks."