AlphaSigOU

Strange Note Sends Jet Back to Gate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 11:09 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A puzzling note a passenger handed to a flight attendant forced a plane to return to the gate at Reagan National Airport on Thursday.

ATA Flight 295 to Chicago's Midway Airport had just pushed back and was taxiing toward the runway when a man passed the note -- written on a napkin -- which contained three words: fast, neat, average.

ATA spokeswoman Angela Thomas said the man asked that the note be given to the pilot, and it was. But the pilot had no idea what it meant, and a decision was made to return the plane with its 90 passengers and crew of six to the gate.

Police were waiting and took the unidentified man into custody. He was still being questioned by local and federal authorities several hours after the incident.

According to Thomas, the man claims to be an Air Force Academy cadet, and said the message on his note would have been understood by an Air Force pilot. The ATA pilot does not have military experience.

The flight eventually left one hour 15 minutes late, and arrived in Chicago without further incident.

Because of its proximity to the nation's capital, National was the last major airport to reopen following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Although commercial service was gradually restored, general aviation remains suspended.

Elsewhere, authorities removed three men who crew members said acted suspiciously on a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Baltimore. And part of a terminal at San Francisco International was evacuated for more than an hour after a woman walked through a closed security gate. The woman was questioned Thursday evening after her plane landed at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

(The origin of the phrase: Form O-96 – This form is used by cadets at their table in Mitchell Hall to report on the quality of food and service. The real intent is to use the Form O-96 as a training aide to teach fourth classman how to fill out an Air Force form (black pen, within the space given); how to make corrections on a form (single line through and initials); how to properly make comments, including negative ones, on an official form; and how to follow procedures in a short period of time under pressure. USAFA folklore explains that the normal blocks to check if the meal and service were fine: fast-neat-average, friendly-good-good. These words were allegedly used in Vietnam as a challenge and response during a successful rescue attempt in which the downed pilot was a USAFA graduate, but did not remember the challenge/response for the day. Cadets and graduates on commercial flights have been known to write on a napkin "fast-neat-average" then ask a flight attendant to give it to the cockpit crew for the proper response. -- Source: http://www.usafa82.org/spec_int/wing...ions_draft.htm)

__________________
Chuck Corway (AlphaSigOU)

Causa latet vis est notissima -- the cause is hidden, the results are well known.

James Bond: "I'll take the full odds on the ten, two hundred on the hard way, the limit on all the numbers, two hundred and fifty on the eleven, thank you very much."

Plenty O'Toole: "Hey! You've played this game before!"

James Bond: "Just once."

REMEMBER THE ALAMO!!! REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR!!! REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 11!!!!