Comments on: Could have been a close call.

Could have been a close call.

Jubey — Thu, 29 May 2003 02:32:21 -0800

2 stabbed in an attempted Qantas hijacking over Melbourne. I hope this isn't the start of a worrying new trend.

By: ascullion

ascullion — Thu, 29 May 2003 03:08:58 -0800

"...no evidence it was an act of terrorism"

By: quin

quin — Thu, 29 May 2003 03:13:39 -0800

Great, now they will be cracking down on wooden stakes at the security checkpoints. i guess my days of hunting vampires abroad are over. Glad to hear that he didn't kill anyone. i would assume that 'stable condition' means that they are going to be ok.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Thu, 29 May 2003 03:16:45 -0800

yes it is the start of a worrying trend, it's time for everyones summer holidays so the newspapers start putting more focus on plane crashes, seeing as we've got past sars and iraq, there has to be something new to worry about.

By: squealy

squealy — Thu, 29 May 2003 03:31:28 -0800

You can bypass all of those holiday hijack worries by staying home and getting drunk on the money you saved by not going on holiday. Works for me.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 29 May 2003 03:43:25 -0800

"IDIOTS! They were chopsticks, for christ's sakes!" I yelled at BBC World not an hour ago (which is, incidentally, where I get most of my news minutiae) as they droned on and on about whether or not this constituted some kind of terror! attack! I shouldn't get so annoyed at the evening news, I am aware (nor, equally, should I be so anally retentive as to criticize anyone for their choice of front page posts).

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 29 May 2003 04:10:16 -0800

An important issue is not being covered by any of the stories I've seen thus far: was this guy swarthy or not?

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Thu, 29 May 2003 04:39:50 -0800

A worrying new trend of simply posting news headlines to MeFi ? No, that's not new.

By: Slithy_Tove

Slithy_Tove — Thu, 29 May 2003 05:42:02 -0800

Great, now they will be cracking down on wooden stakes at the security checkpoints. i guess my days of hunting vampires abroad are over. If they forbid wooden stakes, it means the vampires have already won.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Thu, 29 May 2003 05:59:45 -0800

the infidel koalas must be wiped off the face of the earth.

By: twine42

twine42 — Thu, 29 May 2003 06:10:36 -0800

If they forbid wooden stakes, it means the vampires have already won. Only on the night flights...

By: divrsional

divrsional — Thu, 29 May 2003 06:21:11 -0800

It's all Sarah Michelle Gellar's fault for quitting Buffy.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 29 May 2003 07:20:56 -0800

An important issue is not being covered by any of the stories I've seen thus far: What's Rain Man gonna think about all this?

By: quonsar

quonsar — Thu, 29 May 2003 07:56:43 -0800

I shouldn't get so annoyed at the evening news, I am aware no, really, stav, you SHOULD be annoyed. heinously annoyed. but you're not, not nearly annoyed enough to, for example, walk up to the writer on the sidewalk and punch him in the face while castigating him loudly as a liar and a failure to serve the people he supposedly informs. no, if reporters and editors were punched out 14 times on the way to the local brew pub everytime they pulled some shitty little bit of sleight-o-hand like this, one of two things would happen: 1) newspapers would stop lying 2) attacking journalists would be made a terrorist offense and most of the population would disappear into pens at gitmo. oh. um, never mind.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Thu, 29 May 2003 09:02:34 -0800

There's no justice like Quonsar justice

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 29 May 2003 09:32:59 -0800

Yes there is. Anyone who "learn[s] the meaning of American Justice" will tell you, it's pretty much the same thing (only without the sense of humor).

By: squirrel

squirrel — Thu, 29 May 2003 10:19:03 -0800

I have been so irritated for these last 18 months because the thoughtless response to 9-11 has been to screen airline passengers more and more invasively, to the detriment of airlines and passengers alike. This story illuminates the already glowing reality that if someone wants to terrorize a plane crew, he can do it with his bare hands. So, secure the cockpit like its Fort Knox and scale back those shoe searches and keychain inspections. Focus on what can be prevented.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 29 May 2003 10:42:21 -0800

The return of a trend maybe? "In quantitative terms, airline hijacking peaked in the period 1968-72 with 326 attempts around the world." cite

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 21:30:12 -0800

By the way, the AHA discourages "stable" as a descriptor of someone's medical condition: "this term should not be used in combination with other conditions, which by definition often indicate a patient is unstable." (As one hospital spokesman put it, "You can be dead and be stable.") More info here. (My mom does hospital PR...I learned this one at the dinner table when I was young.)