Officials know perfectly well that passengers will already have imbibed all the fructarian juices imaginable on the ground and will welcome the alternative of these expensively imported, highly calorific pop drinks to keep their energy levels up during random in-flight activities like mass seat changes and locating serviceable toilets.

CNN: From Our Correspondent: On a Magical Hill

Al Megrahi was convicted, in January this year, of mass murder over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, with the loss of 270 lives.

BBC: Relative's doubts over Lockerbie case

The corporate chief simply pushes his "automatic flight mode" and the plane will glide nicely as the mass will work hard to set the course.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation, " Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005.

CNN: Chile quake moves city more than 10 feet

The benefits of grounding planes to halt disease were unclear, but "flight limitations might slow the spread of pandemic influenza by several weeks, thereby providing time for mass vaccination of the population and contingency plan setup, " the researchers wrote.

BBC: In-flight health issues 'on rise'