On Twitter today, I mentioned that today is 9/9/09, and people should honor that by giving a shit. In response, I got a lot of jokes about how 9/9/09 is the sign of the upside down beast, or similar. I didn’t realize at the time that one of the biggest news stories of the day—a few Bolivians hijacking a commercial plane in Mexico—was spurred by just such a stupid belief.
Reader Daniela just tipped us off to this article at ElUniversal.com (here’s the English translation), which breaks the news that hijacker Josmar Aeromexico Flores Pereira is a pastor who believed he received a divine revelation from the Holy Spirit encouraging him to take the plane today because of the upside down significance of the date.
Once again, we have a case of a seemingly absurd belief that results in very serious consequences. Thanks to a bit of luck and I imagine a lot of skill of the Mexican police forces, not a single shot was fired and not a single person was injured.
(edit: possibly his middle name is not Aeromexico. Thanks jonathanhansen.)
Ah, but here in the UK we have the month and day the other way round so… oh wait, that doesn’t work like that 12:34:56 on 7/8/09 crap that went round in July/August.
Human minds evolved into powerful pattern matching machines. Unfortunately, when they are guided by irrational belief systems–numerology, angels, devils, etc.–they “recognize” all sorts of patterns that are not real. Like…
September 9, 2009 –> 9/9/9 –> 6/6/6 –> 666 –> devil –> evil –> hijack plane
It all makes perfect sense (if you’re delusional).
So Rebecca, are you admitting responsibility for this? Or is this somehow the fault of the Australians, since they live in the future? Or is newborn, 8 pound 6 oz baby Jesus (via the Holy Spirit) somehow responsible?
Those 9 years of Catholic school did not prepare me for this type of conundrum.
Also in the UK, 999 is more likely to be recognised as number of the emergency services than the upside-down Beast.
Also, the hijacker’s second name is “Aeromexico”?
Isn’t “666” upside-down technically “1/666”?
I certainly don’t know Spanish, but I’m pretty sure that ” identificó al secuestrador del avión de Aeromexico como Jósmar Flores Pereira” should translate as something like “identified the hijacker of the Aeromexico plane as Josmar Flores Pereira”, rather than “identified the hijacker as plane Josmar Aeromexico Flores Pereira”. Yay machine transation!
@jonathanhansen: “Also, the hijacker’s second name is “Aeromexicoâ€?”
It took me a few minutes to stop laughing long enough to cross that out in the post. I blame this beer and cut & paste. And dumbness.
@Eric Wallace: I’ve decided to name my firstborn child Aeromexico Rodrigues.
@Rebecca: I’m changing my name to that right now ;) That’s an awesome name!
(edit: possibly his middle name is not Aeromexico. Thanks jonathanhansen.)
This is the funniest thing I’ve read all day! I wonder if that might be a great way to get some nice frequent flyer benefits.
– Hello “United Airlines” Kitty
Apparently the Rev. Aeromexico (and the voices guiding him) forgot that the date wasn’t actually “09/09/09” it was “09/09/2009.” Which — when flipped — looks more like gibberish. (Or possibly, the Number of the Beast Inclusive of the Symbol for the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.) Damn those abbreviations!
Since yesterday we’ve had a few more details on the hijacker:
– He was holding a bible during the hijack
– The motive was to inform the Mexican president of an earthquake that’s coming (information he received from the holy spirit)
– He’s a singer… a Christian singer. You can check out some of his greatest hits in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bXXXIcp-ag
I saw the perp on CNN this morning. He was smiling despite being in handcuffs. They mentioned that he was a former alcoholic and drug addict. My suspicion is that our friend “AeroMexico” is probably bipolar. The hyper-irrational belief system would fit nicely with the mental health problems (like pouring gas on a fire).
/BCT
Why is it that god voices never seem to tell people they’re going to have a bad hair day or something equally inane?
Huh, I thought El Universal was a Venezuelan newspaper. I guess the Venezuelan branch is part of it.
@Rebecca
The other kids are going to ask, “What is the meaning of your name?” someday, trust me.
And the poor kid will have to answer, “It means Airmexico.”
Then all the kids will laugh, and he will run back crying to his mommy. And when he grows up, he will live a tragic, bitter life. Do you want that to happen to him? ;)
I’ve been looking forward to the date with anticipation — of this movie: “9”
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809704882/details
(Opened on 9/9/09)