What did Rex Kramer mean by routing the plane in Lake Michigan?
In Airplane!, Rex Kramer told this at some time in the control tower:
We ought to route [the plane] in Lake Michigan, at least we'll avoid killing innocent people.
I had long suspected that this is some kind of a racist joke, but never understood what exactly it meant.
What does that joke mean?
Best Answer
It's not a joke as such.
This is a goddamn waste of time. There's no way he can land this plane! Route 'em into Lake Michigan and at least avoid killing innocent people!
Quite simply Kramer is saying that since the plane can't be landed it will crash and the safest place to do that is into a giant lake rather than into the ground or a built up area, like Chicago, killing anyone underneath.
There's no racist intent here.
The joke, in fact, is that Ted can hear this statement over the mic which freaks him out further.
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