Abq Jew ® Blog: Wherever You Go

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Wherever You Go

That's Where You Are: Edinburgh, Dusseldorf, New York City, Buenos Aires. Does it really matter?

Surely some of you, Abq Jew's loyal readers, saw this story earlier in the week.

It's turned up almost everywhere. But for now, let's stick with CNN's version.

British Airways flight was supposed to go to Germany. It went to Scotland.
Emily Dixon and Gianluca Mezzofiore, CNN • Updated 26th March 2019

Passengers on a British Airways flight from London's City Airport to Dusseldorf in Germany were met with a surprise Monday morning when their plane touched down Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.

The travel error happened because of an incorrectly filed flight plan, leading both the pilot and cabin crew to believe the flight was bound for Edinburgh.

Piotr Pomienski, a student at Imperial College London, told CNN his girlfriend Zsófia Szabó was on the plane that landed in Edinburgh by mistake. "I saw on Flightradar that the flight was flying north instead of south, but I assumed it was a system error of some sort. That is until she wrote to me that they're in Edinburgh."

Szabó told CNN she realized something wasn't right when she saw mountains outside the plane, instead of the "usual German industrial landscape."

"When we started descending and I saw some taller hills/mountains, I did think that this isn't how Eastern Netherlands/Western Germany should look like but I assumed we took some small detour," she said. "Then my colleague sitting across the aisle from me told me to check Google Maps -- and it showed us being around Carlisle."

"The information then spread around quite quickly. Everyone started asking everyone else where they were going -- everyone was for Dusseldorf."

"When we landed there was a bit of a hilarious moment when the flight attendant asked for a show of hands for the people going to Dusseldorf, which turned out to be everyone," she said.

The USS Cod. Not the USS Codfish.

This hilariously not-tragic event immediately brought to what, after so many years, is left of Abq Jew's mind, the Cruise of the USS Codfish. As told by the famous ex-accountant Bob Newhart. Of course.

The USS Triton. The inspiration for the USS Cod.

As it turns out, the Cruise of the USS Codfish began with the Operation Sandblast Cruise of the USS Triton.

USS Triton (SSRN/SSN-586) was a United States Navy radar picket nuclear submarine. In early 1960 it became the first vessel to execute a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth (Operation Sandblast).

Triton accomplished this objective during her shakedown cruise while under the command of Captain Edward L. "Ned" Beach, Jr.

The only member of her class, she also had the distinction of being the only Western submarine powered by two nuclear reactors.

The 1960 The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart comedy album included a sketch entitled "The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish" which was a monologue involving the final address by the captain to the crew of a nuclear-powered submarine after completing a two-year-long, around-the-world underwater voyage.

Bob Newhart noted in a 2006 interview that:

You know, I think the Triton kind of, I think was a spur for that routine as I think back. Because I then imagined what a trip like that would have been like with a totally incompetent commander, and the cruise of the USS Codfish was the final result.

Captain Beach reportedly played "The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish" over the ship's public address system during Triton's first overseas deployment in the Fall of 1960.

"The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish" sorta begins:

Men, I know you are all anxious to be reunited with your loved ones... in some cases your wives... but we have a few moments before we surface and I've just jotted down some things that I think are kind of important, I wouldn't take the time if I didn't.

First of all, I think we ought to give the cooks a standing ovation for the wonderful job they've done. So, if you men want to stand now and let's really hear it for the cooks.