Two friends were flying to Los Angeles from Atlanta. One of the pair was a seasoned traveler; the other had reservations about flying. The first tried to comfort the latter with small talk and distract her with in-flight magazines.
Everything was going fine until the pilot came on the intercom and announced the plane had lost an engine.
The captain quickly continued, “Fear not, though! We still have three engines left and the plane will still make it safely to Los Angeles. The only problem is, our flight will be extended by an hour because of our decreased airspeed.” The cabin’s occupants groaned under the news.
A little later, the captain came back on the intercom and sheepishly said, “Folks, this is really weird, but we just lost another engine. Again, nothing to worry about! The other two engines are fine. But this does delay our flight by another hour or so. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Within a short time, the captain came across the cabin’s speaker system again and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, in all my years of flying, I’ve never experienced this, but we just lost our third engine. It’s OK, because we still have the fourth engine, but this will drag our flight out for yet another hour. From the flight deck, we’re terribly sorry about this inconvenience.”
At that point, the second friend turned to the first and complained, “Geez, if we lose one more engine, we’ll be up here all day.”
Topics Illustrated Include:
Airplanes
Apologize
Assurance
Complain
Misunderstanding
Patience
Time
Travel
Worry
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)