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LAST week a Jet Airways flight was about to take off from Amritsar to Delhi when cabin crew announced, "Could five of the passengers volunteer to get off as the flight is too overloaded to fly." It was only the incentive of a free hotel accommodation, which made three persons agree to the airlines' request. But our Billu Chachu created a ruckus. "Didn't I tell you? We should have taken a roadways bus instead. They always accommodate everybody even if they have to adjust a few passengers on the roof top." "Chacha ji, planes are faster. By road it would have taken us a much longer time," his nephew tried to pacify him. "Who says they are faster? I see many planes keep hovering over their destination for hours due to traffic congestions before they are allowed to land." Chachu snapped, "They should make arrangements for dropping people by parachutes if they have problems and delays in landing." The nephew again tried to mollify Chachu by telling him that pilots were highly trained and they would never risk overloading or ignoring a minor snag in the engine. Chachu narrated an incident to his nephew. A jetliner was inching down the tarmac moving towards the runway. Suddenly it turned around and taxied back to the starting point. After an hour's wait it finally took off. One of the passengers asked the flight attendant about the reason behind the delay. "The pilot was complaining about a noise in the engine," the attendant replied. "So did you set right the noise?" "No, that would have taken long. We changed the pilot instead!"
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