Curiouser and curiouser... a clutch of strange stories

There are some interesting -- I would say, strange -- articles in the newspapers today (18 April).

The first one is an offbeat piece in The Straits Times headlined "Beware, HK airline crew is gongfu-trained".

I had previously noted that ST, compared to Today, tended to fight shy of the less-serious stories (or did not project them in a way that showed their humorous angle). I am glad to see more such stories in ST, like this one below (as tweaked by me):

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Hong Kong Airlines takes the fear out of flying for both its passengers and cabin crew who meet the unruly or drunk passenger onboard. That's because its cabin crew are taking lessons in wing chun, a form of gongfu.

The airline has around three incidents involving disruptive passengers every week, a senior manager said. She added that two weeks ago, one passenger "was sick and probably drunk... The [female crew member who attended to him] realised her [newly acquired] fitness was helping her, especially because the guy was quite heavy".

"Normally, a female cabin crew member can't handle a fat guy, especially if he's drunk, but because of the training, she could handle it quite easily," the manager said.

New recruit Lumpy Tang, 22, said: "You cannot predict what will happen on the plane, so wing chun is good because it's so fast. I feel safer because I can defend myself, and I'm really happy to be one of the first cabin crew [members] in the world to learn wing chun."
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So, there you have it. If you fly Hong Kong Airlines, you get served by female bouncers who will sweetly ask you, "Coffee, tea or booze? But if you start to get drunk on the booze, you'll get thrown out of this aircraft faster than you can say tim sum!" And note the name of that flight attendant. Don't pray, pray with her!

Still on airlines, both TODAY and ST have this story headlined respectively "SIA refused to divert flight, claims man who had heart attack" and "Heart attack victim 'endured 14-hour flight as plane not re-routed' ".

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As reported by the British newspaper the Daily Mail, a BBC journalist, Max Pearson, 51, was on a connecting SIA flight from Singapore to London (having flown in from Tokyo). He suffered a heart attack shortly after the SIA flight took off.

Quoting an unnamed BBC source, the Daily Mail report alleged that the cabin crew refused requests to re-route the plane so that Mr Pearson could receive urgent medical attention. The plane flew on to Heathrow in a 14-hour journey. On landing, Mr Pearson was sent to hospital where he had emergency surgery.

He is reported to be taking legal action against SIA.
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What a strange story! An SIA spokeman would only say that the airline was unable to comment on individual cases. But I'm sure this story will have a follow-up, and pretty soon.

Next, there's this -- also strange -- story in TODAY headlined "An abandoned bag on MRT train". It's a letter by one Valen Luah, who was on an MRT train between the City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut stations at around 12.45 pm last Friday.

Another passenger used the emergency intercom to report the bag.

"Instead of being told what to do in this situation, the response was that an MRT officer would attend to the matter later. Disturbed, the man asked what if the bag contained a bomb?

"As it turned out, an officer was waiting at the next station and he asked the surrounding passengers if any of them owned the bag [my own comment here: Duh!].

"Then, without examining the bag, he lifted it to take it away -- for that brief instant, my heart skipped a beat.

"For all the public awareness campaigns on ensuring that our trains remain secure, was that officer properly trained to provide commuters the assurance that any emergency situation would be ably handled?"
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Look out for a follow-up story, or explanation from the MRT operator.

Last item is this seemingly strange headline in the sports page of TODAY (page 42):

"No three-peat for Vettel".

Okay, as the story itself explained, current Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel was denied a third triumph in a row this season. Lewis Hamilton broke Vettel's run by winning the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on Sunday. But -- for Pete's sake --  what is a "three-peat"?

Then I Googled, and here's what I found:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/three-peat