This is a true story, printed in the Vancouver Sun, June 8, 2000.

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, MICH. — All someone said was “Hi, Jack!” but at a suburban Detroit airport, that was enough to create a crisis.

A microphone happened to be on Monday when someone greeted the co-pilot aboard a corporate jet, and the tower heard “hijack,” police Lieutendant Rick Crigger said.

Oakland International Airport tower officials called the Waterford police.

They in turn called in a whole extra shift of police, the Oakland County Sheriff’s department SWAT team, the FBI and other federal authorities.

The plane was told to return to the tower, and the pilot’s identification was checked.

“I like false alarms like that,” Police Chief John Dean said. “They are good for training purposes. Nobody was hurt and they were just delayed a few minutes.”

Once the alarm was over, the law officers could laugh about it.

“They’ll probably pass a rule that no one named Jack can ever be hired in aviation again,” said Waterford Captain Chuck Jehle.

A woman calling a travel agency to make reservations said, “I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York”

.The agent was at a loss for words. Finally he asked, “Are you sure that’s the name of the town?”

“Yes, what Flights do you have?” replied the customer.

After some searching, the agent came back with, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a Hippopotamus anywhere.”

The customer retorted, “Oh don’t be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!”

The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, “You don’t mean Buffalo, do you?”

“That’s it!” she said. “I knew it was some big animal!”