Hi, Paul!  Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:   
      
    ak>  Lady opened the door, jumped off our plane while   
    ak>  taxiing to the gate.   
      
      
               This incident, or a similar one, was reported on the TV news here.   
   In a photo taken by another passenger, an emergency exit door on the starboard   
   side is open... yet all of the people who are visible remain seated.  I gather   
   it's not the first time such an incident has occurred.  But the airport police   
   will no doubt have caught her within minutes & questioned her motives....  ;-)   
      
      
      
    ak>  While what?   
      
    PQ>  To 'taxi'.  An accepted aviation term for the action of   
    PQ>  /driving/ an aeroplane from the runway to the entrance   
    PQ>  (gate) of the passenger transfer areas (terminals), or   
    PQ>  \vice-verse.   
         |vice versa... from Latin.  I wasn't a brilliant student   
         in the subject.  I understand what people mean when they   
         say "it killed the mighty Romans & now it's killing me",   
         but I also find it helpful now & then....  :-)   
      
      
               My CANADIAN OXFORD DICTIONARY defines "(to) taxi", in this sort of   
   situation, as "(to) move along the ground under the machine's own power before   
   takeoff or landing" or "(to) cause an aircraft to taxi".  How very Canadian of   
   the publishers to avoid the issue of whether to type "aeroplane" or "airplane"   
   ... and save us from having to wade through numerous definitions of "plane" if   
   we have no context clues!  I'd type "aeroplane", just as you did, but WRT this   
   particular example "plane" is acceptable & the spelling is less important than   
   the grammar.  It's not clear *who's driving the thing*.  As native speakers of   
   English we can figure it out after years of practice in making sense of junior   
   high school compositions or eyewitness reports... our friends who are studying   
   English as a second, third, or umpteenth language may get a double whammy here   
   though.  Even if the resources available to them include the definitions we're   
   referring to, they may find the "cold-blooded murder of the English tongue"...   
   as George Bernard Shaw put it... a bit confusing.  While I commend Alexander's   
   efforts to read widely, he is an advanced student.  I'd advise others to stick   
   to the BBC news if they want to learn how to write coherent sentences....  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)