Thursday, September 06, 2007

Engineers & Scientists do NOT have all the answers

Lovely story in the Telegraph today.
Apparently, Nepalese Airlines ( they of the Gurkha persuasion) were having some problems with one of their Boeing 757s. The mechanics fixed it, the engineers checked it out, and still it wouldn't work.
So they called in a Shaman. Now, this is not, to be fair, usual Boeing procedure, but in this case the man on the ground decided this was the right course of action.
Having checked out the problem, the Shaman said " Go and get two goats".
He then proceeded to slaughter them in the 'plane ( presumably using his kukri).
I can imagine the Boeing's man's thoughts - and his face.
Wiping his kukri on his coat, the Shaman opined all would now be well. Picking up the goats ( after all, waste not, want not) off he toddled, leaving a rather thunderstruck group on the 'plane.
Once they recovered themselves - and cleaned up the mess - the chief engineer said they had better see if something else was wrong, but first, try it again.
All went absolutely perfectly. They checked and checked - nothing had apparently changed, but now it worked.
So the next time the clotheswasher won't work, slaughter a goat inside it. One should do the trick if you only need two for a 757.

1 comment:

Whispering Walls said...

Thank you for that useful tip.