Understatement of the evening (true story)

In 1982, the engines of a British Airways flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth ingested dust from the nearby eruption of Mt. Galunggung in Java, which congested the engine combustion chambers and stopped all four engines on the plane. Further, the dust sandblasted the plane’s windshield so that the crew could not see out.

The pilot, Eric Moody, came on over the plane’s sound system and delivered the following understatement of the evening in an effort to notify the cabin service director as the P.A. system was broken:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We’re all doing our damndest to get them going again. I trust you’re not in too much distress.

The plane glided without power for thirteen minutes from 37,000 feet down to 13,500 feet, where they were able to eventually restart two of the engines, make a 300-degree left turn, and safely land in Jakarta.

After the landing, when asked by journalists what it was like to land on a dark night without forward vision, Capt. Moody replied with another zinger:

It was a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse.

Source: BBC Cymru Wales, episode of “iQ” (Capt. Moody was in the audience during the episode.)