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Hey, this reminds me how much I enjoyed reading "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe, probably 20 years ago. I bet I still have that somewhere on the bookshelf. Has anybody else read it? One of the most memorable things I gleaned from that book is that the tendency of commercial pilots to understate emergencies comes from a time-honored tradition of test pilots with nerves of steel doing the same:
Pilot, speaking in reassuring drawl: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that we may have a slight delay today in getting you to your meetings and what-have-you in Chicago. One of the engines has decided to take a little break, but don't worry -- the other one is a hard worker, and we'll get there fine. No problem."
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