I remember the feeling of relief I had when I unloaded the 1989 Ford Escort that I once drove. It was perennially in the shop, and once I got rid of it, I wanted to do a little happy-dance, just knowing that it was no longer my problem.

Airlines and their mechanics must feel the same way about some of their planes. Especially some of their regional jets, which few people cherish. But there are obviously different ways of celebrating…

Turkish Airlines took swift disciplinary action Wednesday after it emerged that members of its technical staff had sacrificed a camel to celebrate getting their job done. Maintenance workers all pitched in to buy the beast to mark the long-awaited dispatch to Britain of the last of 11 RJ100 aircraft which Turkish decided to leave out of its fleet due to a series of accidents involving the planes. The camel was sacrificed Tuesday at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and about 1,540 pounds of meat was distributed among the staff.

I’m afraid to ask how the airline’s executives celebrated their company’s recent admission to the Star Alliance.

Post 9/11, I figured that hijackings were a thing of the past. Passengers would rise up and tackle the perps, grabbing them by the hair and engaging in a rough and tumble Boeing Brawl. The captain might emerge, heroically carrying his fire axe, duct-taping the hijackers to a seat, Jack Bauer-style, and order would be restored.

Apparently, you still CAN hijack a plane, after all. Turkish hijackers took over a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana, Albania, to Istanbul, apparently in protest of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Turkey. The flight was diverted to Brindisi, Italy, escorted by Greek and Italian fighter jets, where the hijackers requested asylum.

Maybe no one stopped the hijackers because they were too nice: The flight attendants were allowed to serve drinks and snacks during the flight, apparently AFTER the hijacking was underway. The hijackers had no obvious weapons, and no one was hurt.

Passengers thought something was odd when they “saw a man wearing track-suit bottoms and a hat go to the cockpit door and pause there, thinking.”

Miss India, Miss Singapore, Miss Malaysia, and Miss Philippines were on the flight, returning from the Globe International 2006 beauty contest in fab-u-lous downtown Tirana.

The lesson: Never trust beauty queens to take down a hijacker. Never.

(image: Valleia)