[ccmay]

They've still got interest on the -800 passenger version from Middle Eastern and Asian airlines that want to use them on medium-length high-density routes

That means the Hajj, I think.

I had a pal who flew some Hajj charters. He landed MD-11's in some of the most backward Muslim hellholes in the world, on airstrips I'd be afraid to use in a DC-3. Then they packed in every smelly ignorant goatherd for miles around, flew them all to Mecca, and back a week or so later.

The week of downtime was spent in a Dubai hot tub with Swedish stewardesses, so I guess that part was OK.

Not OK is when the hajis try to start a fire in the aisle of the aircraft to cook the live chicken they brought on board in a crate; this apprently happened a time or two.

[fontoon]

I've heard stories of the attempted cooking of the the chicken in the isle of a jet. The instance that comes to mind was when the Israelis were rescuing oppressed Jews from tyrannical Arab countries.

[Moose4]

Supposedly, the in-flight fire that claimed the lives of over 300 people onboard a Saudi Arabian L-1011 many years ago, heading from Riyadh to Jeddah, was caused by just what you said--somebody cooking with a campstove or Sterno or something in the middle of the aisle. (That's a persistent rumor, anyway, I'm not sure if it's fact.) The crew detected a fire in an aft cargo area and were then told there was a fire in the rear cabin. The saddest part was that the deaths were preventable--for unknown reasons, the captain ordered the attendants NOT to evacuate the passengers upon landing, and when he did land, he didn't stop immediately on the runway--he taxiied off the runway like normal and didn't shut the engines down for three minutes. Between a lack of knowledge of the L-1011's emergency exits, and the fire, it took firefighters at the airport TWENTY-THREE MINUTES to get inside the cabin after landing. Everybody, including the flight crew, died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudia_Flight_163

}:-)4

[patton]

LOLOL. DC-3's need an airfield?