Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 10:47:20 PDT
From: Jose Reynaldo Setti <setti@civoffice.watstar.uwaterloo.ca>
Subject: The risks of flying pigs

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that a commercial jet carrying 72 pigs
and 300 human passengers had to make an emergency landing after having its
fire alarms triggered by excessive levels of methane, ammonia and body heat
in the cargo hold where the pigs were traveling (you surely did not expect
that the pigs were traveling economy class).  Apparently, excessive
flatulence, urine, droppings and the heat generated by the bodies of the
pigs caused the automated fire-extinguishing system to flood the cargo hold
with halon, killing 15 of the very valuable hogs. The risks of flying pigs
are evident.

Jose' Reynaldo Setti <setti@civoffice.watstar.uwaterloo.ca>, Visiting 
University of Waterloo (Canada) from University of Sao Paulo (Brazil)