IF MAN WERE MEANT TO FLY

He wouldn't make a connecting flight in Brazil, that's for darn skippy. Because if he did, that would mean he's likely to board a TAM flight.

Tani, of "I'll Get You My Pretty And Your Little Blog Too..." fame recently sent me this article. It's funny in that "oh my goodness we're all gonna die" sort of way.

TAM airlines, which is Brazil's leading airline, uses these aircraft called, I'm dead serious here, Fokker planes. (No, I don't know if their first name is Gaylord) The Dutch company that produces the planes went bankrupt 10 years ago, which will not come as a surprise to you when you get further into the article. TAM, economic minded people that they are, currently operates 22 of these aircraft, but are looking to eliminate them all by 2010.

So far they've eliminated 4 in the last 10 years:
1 crashed into the ground shortly after take off in Sao Paulo killing over 100 people
1 had an explosion onboard that sent a passenger flying out of the plane to what was probably a surprising demise
1 had two of its windows shatter causing a passenger to die from depressurization
and finally
1 had a door fall off.

You've got to hand it to them, when those Brazilians decided to retire something, it Stays Retired. But, to look on the bright side, as Star Worz is famous for, no one has actually Been Killed by these Fokker death traps since 2001, so they must be doing Something Right, right? I mean, this time it was just a door. Next time it'll probably just be a windshield wiper. By 2008, with a little luck and prayer, it's possible Nothing will fall off. Who wouldn't want to fly the Brazilian skies in one of these beautiful Fokkers?

Fokker if I know.