I have a friend, who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, who almost set a passenger jet on fire.
He was at the airport, waiting in departure when his name was announced over the tannoy. He was met by a number of securitry people and driven out to the plane.
"Is that your bag , Sir?"
"It kind of looks like it...err...what happened?"
They were loading the baggage/refuelling when his *rucksack* fell off the baggage trolley under the wing of the plane. Due to the fact that he was a radio amateur he had a 12 volt small car battery in it, without any protection on the terminals, loose, bouncing around. The battery took exception to being dropped and the bag went up in flames.
The pilot had some words of advice for my friend and pointed out that with that battery in the hold over the atlantic there would have been little that could have been done to stop a fire.
My friend retrieved a charred bible from the bag and later told me that Jesus had saved him and his family and indeed everyone on the plane. It was not explained why Jesus didn't give him the good sense to not put something that could spontaneously combust in a bag in the hold of a plane.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
