One by one, all four of its engines failed.

After falling more than 25,000 feet and preparing to ditch in the Indian Ocean, the plane's crew eventually got the engines restarted. So the story had a happy ending.

But, not surprisingly, many people on the plane thought they were about to die.

I am old enough to remember this incident, but I had forgotten something important about it: What the plane's captain said to the passengers the moment after the engines failed. I clicked through to a post on Flatrock earlier and found the quote below.

Captain Eric Moody was later praised for a cabin announcement that was described as "a masterpiece of understatement."

Moody's announcement was actually more than that.