September 5, 2007

Picture it: your airplane has mechanical problems.

And the airline sacrifices two goats to win favor from Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection:
Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane - a Boeing 757 - at Kathmandu airport.

15 comments:

David53 said...

If they did that at LAX would they go to jail like Mike Vick?

jimbino said...

Watching goats being slaughtered is no more scary than seeing your flight crew bow their heads in prayer before takeoff.

But it's totally unnecessary, since the Lamb of God has died for our aircraft.

hdhouse said...

About 1975 or so I was on a domestic flight in India where there was an attempt to start a small fire in order to roast some goat. I am not kidding.

Christy said...

Flying can bring out the most primative fears in us all. I was once greatly comforted by seeing the elephant-headed Ganesh, Hindu God of auspicious beginnings, in the clouds during a particularly nasty flight into New Orleans. The flight was so bad that after two aborted landings we set down in Baton Rouge where 6 people got off to drive into N.O.

Good thing I didn't know about Akash Bhairav. I don't think I could have recognized him in the clouds no matter how hard I tried.

bill said...

Looks like a good place for Arthur C. Clarke's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

rhhardin said...

We do that for software releases all the time.

Anonymous said...

Scapegoating.

AllenS said...

Well, I see cultural progress. Better goats than virgins.

The Drill SGT said...

every time I fly to Europe I see the counter displays for those 1 plane African Flag carriers. Would not touch any of them with a 10 ft pole. same with some of the mid-east ones. However some of the Arabs got smart. Instead of having maintenance done in the home country by Paki's, they do most of their maintenance on the European legs (and almost everything they fly is Europe to ME). Anyway the smart ones use Lufthansa. Nothing but nothing makes me feel better about getting on a plane to somewhere than to see some blonde haired guy with the blue and yellow stork seal on his hat working on the engine.

Anonymous said...

My wife's cousin is in the aircraft engine parts business. From what he says, sacrificing a goat or two might be a maintenance improvement for some airlines.

I'm Full of Soup said...

If it works, why stop at only two? You can't be too safe these days.

Jane said "scapegoating" heh good one Jane.

Joe said...

Nothing but nothing makes me feel better about getting on a plane to somewhere than to see some blonde haired guy with the blue and yellow stork seal on his hat working on the engine.

I'm not too comfortable to be getting on an airplane while someone is working on the engine, regardless of what hat he or she is wearing.

Trooper York said...

I once took a flight that had both Ernest Borgine and Shelly Winters flying in first class ...I had to go up to them to say:"Thank God we are not taking a boat."...I know they didn't get it either.

blake said...

I got it, York.

There has to be a morning after.

dick said...

You people need a re-education class in multiculturalism. It is not nice to mock the mores and beliefs of other cultures.

In the meantime I think I would have started looking for another airline toute suite.