ON APRIL 1, 1957, the BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax (created by Richard Dimbleby) showing people in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from trees. It started by saying that spring had come early that year so that the harvest had started and the crop was even more abundant because the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated.
The programme also asserted that the oddly uniform length of the common or garden spaghetti was the result of years of dedicated husbandry. More than 250 callers jammed the BBC switchboard enquiring where they could go to watch the harvest and how to acquire plants of their own.
Another famous April Fool’s hoax was perpetrated by the Taco Bell company, which announced on April 1, 1996, that it had bought the Liberty Bell (the famous artefact dating back to the Revolutionary War) from the federal government and would rename it the TACO BELL.
Because this is free publicity for the company that dreams up the spoof and a great marketing opportunity to exploit, especially if it goes viral on the web, even airlines have got into the act.
Sleeping cabin
The Canadian airline Westjet in 2008 offered a “sleeping cabin” in the overhead luggage compartments of their aircraft for an additional US$12.
“The overhead compartment has traditionally been a place where guests have placed their carry-on baggage,” Westjet vice president Bob Cummings said in a joke statement. “Given that the overhead bins on our fleet (of 73 Boeing 737s) are among the most spacious of any airline, we made the decision to offer sleeper cabins in that space.”
This year, though, April Fool seemed to have come early. I was one of those who turned up in Providenciales (Turks and Caicos Islands) last Saturday, March 26, for a flight to Miami.
My flight was due to leave at 7:40 a.m., so I left the hotel at 4:30 a.m. to make sure I was the recommended three hours early for international flights. The airport was deserted and its doors were locked. A Guyanese security guard had pity on me and after many attempts finally opened the door for me to go inside the completely empty departure area. I eventually found out that the airline staff does not start working until 6 a.m.
After watching them dithering around for a long while, I realized something was wrong and thought it was (as one of them said) a computer breakdown.
It turned out to be a credibility meltdown instead.
We were told that because of a fuel shortage in Miami (caused by a fire) the AA flight was cancelled.
I was the first person in line and pointed out that since the plane had overnighted in Providenciales, and there was enough fuel at the island’s airport to fuel the plane, the shortage in Miami should not be the cause of the cancellation. I asked to be put on another flight that was leaving around 01:00 p.m. that day and was told the flight was full. I subsequently saw other passengers being put on the later flight.
When I asked about where they were putting me up for the night and my expenses, I was told that it was an act of God and AA does not compensate for the Almighty’s sins of commission. As far as I know, when fires break out in installations it is a failure of someone or some organization and God has nothing to do with it directly.
On the flight back to Antigua, two days later than my scheduled return, I spoke to a Caribbean aviation official, who confirmed for me that definition of acts of God by the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) does not include what seems to be a case of negligence, or where human error can be the cause.
However, AA stuck to blaming God and after my additional day in Providenciales, I had another extra day in Miami, all because of Him. Fortunately for my immortal soul, I have not lost faith in God but have lost any faith I had in AA.
• Tony Deyal was last seen saying that AA only cancelled two of his flights, but London’s Capitol Radio once told its audience that daylight saving time had done so well that April 5 and April 12 had to be cut from the calendar.
