Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.
"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.
Local media last week blamed the company's woes on an electrical fault. The carrier runs international flights to five cities in Asia.
It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.


Okay, enough is enough. If people want to take stupid risks with their own lives based on their faith that is one thing, but has the whole country gone completely insane to let this sort of thing go unchecked? This is a risk to everyone's life that flys on that aircraft! How do you know which plane you're flying on there? I'm sure most of us flying into India would like to know that the plane we're flying on didn't have the Hindu sky god perform the last maintenance check. Who will be at fault when the problem that this plane is having comes back, and possibly mid-flight? Any Christians who object to this have no ground. Clearly, your god loves this sort of thing as well, so if you wouldn't fly on a plane that was divinely repaired through animal sacrifice, then maybe your faith is not as strong as you thought.

PS- And that's a good thing