There are two seemingly innocuous words that no spaceship pilot 500 kilometres above Earth wants to hear from Mission Control. They are: ‘er’ and ‘situation’. So, when Captain Dan Cooke and his young co-pilot Jacqui Morse heard both words in the same sentence – “Er, Dan, we have a situation” – they stiffened and turned to each other wide-eyed, fearing the worst for themselves and their passengers.
TFrom behind them, in the main cabin, came the rowdy noises of the passengers and loud, throbbing dance music. Screams, shrieks, and laughs passed easily through the cabin walls, as did sounds of clinking bottles and of bodies thumping against walls. The ladies were clearly enjoying their experience of weightlessness. Not to mention the copious quantities of alcohol they had smuggled aboard.
On
