It's a varmint.

Sometimes I wonder if the greatest threat to our airlines isn't deadly less than 3 ounce containers of poison but our own dang selves.

I read today about an American Airlines flight that was diverted because of a stowaway squirrel.

Read what the spokesman had to say:

"You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don't want anything up there," said John Hotard, spokesman for the Ft. Worth, Texas-based airline. He said pilots feared the animal would chewed through wiring or cause other problems.

"So, as a precaution, we diverted," Hotard said.

Firstly he used the word "varmint" - really is that the technical term? I dunno about that one.

But Mr. Hotard goes on to refer to all the wiring and all the equipment and operating components above the cockpit as "what-have-you".

What-have-you.

I know that I am not an aeronautical genius but I would like to think that there is a more technical term for airline electronics than "what-have-you".

And secondly, if pilots hear a weird rustling sound in the cockpit and you are flying from Tokyo to Dallas over the Pacific, then DIVERT DIVERT DIVERT!

Because when the NTSB is sieving through the smithereens of a smashed up plane, they are not going to be looking for a squirrel.


And if you think that picture is funny, check 'em ALL out at the Sugar Bush Squirrel website.