Eric Moody Has Died

[Slim]

I heard this morning that Eric Moody died last week.

Eric was piloting a British Airways 747 over Jakarta in 1982 when the engines started to misbehave. Shortly afterwards all four of them flamed out, choked by an ash cloud from a volcano that the aircraft had flown through, transforming it into a glider.

Famously, Moody announced to the passengers that there was a "small problem".

Fortunately by the time the 747 had descended to 13,000 feet twelve minutes later the air was oxygen-rich enough to overcome the choking effect of the ash buildup over the critical flow areas, so that the engines could be restarted. They were returned to Rolls-Royce in Derby to be stripped down to their component parts and examined.

After they landed, the flight engineer is said to have kissed the ground. When Eric asked him what he was doing he replied that "the Pope does this".

"That's because he flies Air Alitalia", came the reply.