[Rick Lee]

Having run out of gas a week ago in the middle of the desert, I can sympathize somewhat.

Anyone here read Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers? He has a great chapter about plane crashes due to cultural and language misunderstandings between cockpit crews and air traffic controllers. He mentions one fatal commercial jetliner crash in NY where the ATC was having the plane circle the airport and the Columbian pilot simply was not forceful enough in telling ATC that he didn't have the fuel to continue doing that for as long as they wanted him to. A surviving flight attendant (pilots were killed) even recounted to the NTSB that he'd seen the warning light just before the crash.