Earlier today, a United flight to Chicago carrying White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers and a bunch of Chicago Machine Politicians was forced to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh after the flight experienced a malfunction of "on-air equipment." Sen. Roland Burris was on this flight apparently, and, according to his spokesman, got up to some heroics. Here's what Lynn Sweet was told:
Jim O'Connor, a Burris spokesman, said Burris told him that he heard a loud bang at take-off, sometime near 11:30 a.m. One the plane was in the air, the noises became deafening and the plane began to shake, O'Connor said. There was also a great deal of turbulence.
The pilot announced to the passengers there was a hydrolic system failure and the O'Hare Airport-bound plane would be making an emergency landing in Pittsburgh.
Emergency vehicles met the plane on the tarmac upon landing. Burris helped an elderly woman off the plane.
Sounds impressive! But, before Burris runs off to scrawl "SUPER AEROPLANE HERO" on his "Mausoleum of Accomplishments," he'd better get shot of the accusations of another passenger, who says, via Twitter, that Burris is not telling the truth:
Obviously, we can't corroborate any of this! But here's a taste of your newspaperless future, where everyone on Twitter is either KEEPING THEM HONEST 140 characters at a time, or, you know...sending sexts to each other, like always.
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POSTSCRIPT: Is it just me or have there been many reports on this that have taken great care to point out that while Desiree Rogers and Roland Burris were on the same plane, they were not -- I REPEAT NOT! -- travelling together! Yes, great! A number of people went through a harrowing mid-air experience today, about which we'd like to know more, but first, BY ALL MEANS, TELL US IF BURRIS AND ROGERS ARE ATTEMPTING TO JOIN THE MILE HIGH CLUB!
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