Any fool can criticise, condemn and complain – and most fools do.
It takes character and self-control to be understanding and
forgiving.
A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men.
Bob Hoover, a famous test pilot and frequent performer at air
shows, was returning to his home in Los Angeles from an air show in San Diego.
As described in the magazine Flight Operations, at three hundred feet in the
air, both engines suddenly stopped. By deft manoeuvring he managed to land the
plane, but it was badly damaged although nobody was hurt. Hoover’s first act
after the emergency landing was to inspect the aeroplane’s fuel. Just as he
suspected, the World War II propeller plane he had been flying had been fuelled
with jet fuel rather than gasoline. Upon returning to the airport, he asked to
see the mechanic who had serviced his aeroplane. The young man was sick with
the agony of his mistake. Tears streamed down his face as Hoover approached. He
had just caused the loss of a very expensive plane and could have caused the
loss of three lives as well. You can imagine Hoover’s anger. One could
anticipate the tongue-lashing that this proud and precise pilot would unleash
for that carelessness. But Hoover didn’t scold the mechanic; he didn’t even
criticise him. Instead, he put his big arm around the man’s shoulder and said,
‘To show you I’m sure that you’ll never do this again, I want you to service my
F-51 tomorrow.
