Whew Relief when it's only a 'natural' disaster

The bad news: The airliner you're aboard crashes.
The good news: It lands safely intact in the water.
The bad news: It's in the midst of the coldest weather streak to blast the region in years.
The good news: It lands near midtown Manhattan, surrounded by rescue personnel and vessels.

There's never a good time for the airliner you're aboard to fall from the sky, but it could've been worse.

The US Airways Airbus A-320 hit a bird (or two?) shortly after take-off from NY's La Guardia enroute to Charlotte, NC and immediately lost two engines. The pilot asked for permission to land at an alternative runway in nearby Teterboro, NJ but never made it.

Passengers in commuter boats witnessed the splashdown and saw rescue vessels arrive shortly thereafter. Passengers fleeing the cabin were seen standing on the wing awaiting resuce.

Birds!

Birds are a common problem at most Alaska airports, since we are one massive aviary during the summer months, especially those Lesser Canadian geese who love to nest and graze on the grass that surrounds runways at the State's two largest airports in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Seagulls and ducks also pose problems, especially to float planes, and airport managers have adopted a number of creative ways of scaring away the intruders... the most novel probably being the use of pigs. The pigs scare the birds and molest any nests they try to build.

Birds near airports pose problems all over the place. Reports say an estimated 600 get caught in engines every year.

Thankfully all the US Airways passengers are safe. To think that this could happen at any moment is bad news. To know that it's a rare event is the good.

Scare!

So what's here that you won't find on any news site?

Only this:Imagine the difference of reaction, news coverage and level of national hysteria if, instead of a flock of birds, those engines had been disabled by a "terrorist."

Birds take out an aircraft engine, you get a national "wow" factor, but if a person does it, you get national panic. Airports shut down, flights get cancelled, airport security goes red-alert and god only knows what else.

Thank god it was only a bird.

Bush IS still in office, after all.