Jake Young is a 
A squirrel running around the innards of the plane grounded a Dallas-Tokyo flight:
An American Airlines flight made an unscheduled landing after pilots heard something skittering about in the wire-laden space over the cockpit.The airline blamed the emergency landing of the Tokyo-Dallas flight with 202 passengers on a stowaway squirrel.
"You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don't want anything up there," said John Hotard, spokesman for the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline.
He said pilots feared the animal would chew through wiring or cause other problems.
"So, as a precaution, we diverted," Hotard said.
Once on the ground late Friday, the Boeing 777's human passengers were put up in hotel rooms and later rebooked on other flights.
State and federal agriculture and wildlife officials boarded the plane, set traps and captured the eastern gray squirrel.
Hotard said the plane had flown to Tokyo from New York before the Dallas flight.
Honolulu, however, proved to be the squirrel's final destination. Fearing it might have been carrying rabies, authorities had the rodent killed. (Emphasis mine.)
I'm sorry, did he just use the word "varmint"? Who is he, Yosemite Sam?
Sucks for the squirrel. One day, you are frolicking freely in a Boeing; the next day people are accusing you of being a wire-chewer and have you executed.
Comments
Varmint? Well, he is from Texas.
Posted by: T. Bruce McNeely | February 19, 2007 10:09 AM
Hey, he's at the AA HQ in Fort Worth. People still talk like that there. :)
Posted by: Scott Simmons | February 19, 2007 1:43 PM
Varmint? I thought that word was made up by Yosemite Sam!
And, uh, couldn't they have checked the squirrel for rabies and uh, maybe not killed it?
I dunno, just seems rather....arbitrary.....
Posted by: Kim | February 19, 2007 8:47 PM
I don't know if this is current, but I believe the way to test animals for rabies to cut their head off. I don't feel sorry for the squirrel at all; ever since my ceiling fell on me while sleeping, I've not cared for them (they chewed through the AC drain pipe).
I knew right away what the man meant by varmint, but then again, I come from a place that calls all cola's -coke-.
Posted by: Sherri | February 20, 2007 7:51 PM
Believe it or not, varmint is a word heard on a fairly regular basis here in Texas -- we have lots of them -- human and otherwise! Varmint is a very useful in referring to anything or anyone who has done something annoying, like get in an airplane and cause an uproar for lots of people. We have lots of multi-purpose words in the south(ex.: fixin' and y'all). Don't be surprised if you hear Georgie-boy use it, either.
I agree about the poor squirrel -- I guess I could see it getting the ax in Texas just for being a varmint, but I thought Hawaii was a kinder, gentler place...
Posted by: Karen | February 21, 2007 10:14 AM