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Yesterday's query, "How many passengers in major airline disasters have been saved by life jackets?", brings this from Dash Hall, of Vaucluse: "Pan Am flew Boeing's Strato-Clipper, a double-deck aircraft, across the Pacific in the early 1950s. Unfortunately it lost two aircraft when they had to ditch in the ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii. I believe it was the US Coast Guard that picked up all members of the crews and passengers, all wearing airline-issue life jackets."

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"Further to your current theme of 'fear of flying'," adds Janet Rogers, of St Lucia, Queensland, "dare I ask the question: how many passengers in major airline disasters have been saved by life jackets?" Does anybody know?

Tony's Flight In A Luxury Yacht

FOR Tony Mokbel, a man who tried to live his life straight from the pages of a pulp thriller, it would seem entirely appropriate to leave Australia in the most mysterious - and bizarre - method possible.