Fun_People Archive
20 May
We had much to learn from him...

Date: Thu, 20 May 93 13:25:02 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: We had much to learn from him...

 From: Keith Bostic <bostic@vangogh.CS.Berkeley.EDU>
 From: R. McAllister clipping service
 From: The Weekly World News

"Flying Swami Sucked Into Jet Engine!"

NEW DELHI, India -- A flying swami died one of the most horrible deaths
imaginable when he veered in front of a commercial airliner as it prepared
for takeoff -- and was sucked into one of its roaring jet engines!

(photos of swami, of jet, and of front intake of jet engine.)

"I'm still having nightmares about it," declared Amitav Tamil,  a ground
crew worker who witnessed the tragedy at the airport north of New Delhi.

"I was working on the tarmac behind the main terminal when the holy man
flew by and I knew that something bad was going to happen.

"I turned to see where he was going and saw him disappear in front of the
plane. Then I heard a sickening 'whoosing' noise  and saw blood and bits of
flesh shoot out the back of the jet.

"Those big engines have blades like a fan inside their housings. They
obviously tore him to shreds."

Aviation authorities who investigated the February 11 incident called it "a
most unusual case." But they quickly ruled that the pilot of the Air Rama
jet couldn't be held responsible for the death of 78-year-ole Kumoran
Samiti because the swami "had no business flying through restricted air
space without a plane."

Nobody can explain why the holy man decided to demonstrate his ability to
soar through the air at the airport.

But his friends said the swami's eyesight was failing and suggested that he
might have flown over the runway by mistake.

Parapsychologist Narayan Khandkar, who has written extensively on Hindu
holy men, said Samiti "had powers and abilities the rest of us can only
imagine.  Losing him is a tragedy of the first magnitude, we had much to
learn from him."

© 1993 Peter Langston