Listen To This! The Funniest Pilot I’ve Heard In A While

We’ve all heard pilots give their opening remarks prior to flight.  In most cases, it sounds like the pilot has taken a mild to moderate sedative.  I’ve often wondered how much they practice sounding exactly the same as every other pilot.

Every once in a while, you get a pilot that makes “the talk” personal.  Sometimes there’s recognition of military, other times a special way to thank customers.  And, sometimes, if you’re lucky, there’s humor.

I can’t help but thank Paul who writes the Results Junkies blog for sending over this tidbit to me.  I’ve been on the road for a decent chunk of the last two years with Paul and Dana.  It didn’t take them long to learn I was a travel nut (and a donut nut).  Paul sent this my way last night and I got a good chuckle out of it.

What you want to do is listen to the first ten minutes of Episode #629 of the This American Life podcast.  The host, Ira Glass, was on a JetBlue flight recently and has a great story to tell about the pilot.

It starts with him boarding an overnight flight on JetBlue.  Not to Ira, us nerds call them redeyes.  Well, so do most other people. 😉

Anyway, as he’s thinking about nodding off on the long flight home, the pilot starts cracking jokes.  Here’s a few, roughly paraphrased:

I was just on the tarmac and saw the workers throwing the last of your bags……Oh, sorry about that.  Didn’t mean to say throwing.  I used to work over at American and old habits die hard.

What I meant to say is that they were lovingly and gently placing your bags in the lower belly of the plane.

I used to fly the real big planes at American and TWA.  They told me I didn’t have a personality to be a pilot so they sent me over here.

Ira decided to track her down.  Her name is Ann Aldridge (sp?).  Why does she inject humor?  To make people want to come back and fly JetBlue.  Love that answer.

Where did she get the inspiration?

She rode on a few Southwest flights and a captain was hilarious.  He was her inspiration to just get funny.  She did say she stole the “American told me I didn’t have a personality” line from that Southwest captain.

She also tells the story of how her son was asked by his school teacher if he wanted to be a pilot like his mom or a fire fighter like his dad.  He replied, “Fire Fighter”.  When the teacher asked him why not a pilot, he replied, “That’s a girl’s job”.  My, how times have changed.

Anyway, take a listen.  You won’t be sorry.

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