The wings are not on fire

A Captain and the First Officer are whistling idly in an aeroplane cockpit. They are obviously very bored.C: You know what... FO: What? (The Captain picks up a microphone.) C: (over intercom) “Hello, this is your Captain speaking. There is absolutely no cause for concern.” That’ll get them thinking. (The First Officer reaches for the microphone.) C: No, no, no, no. Not yet, not yet. Let it sink in. They’ll be thinking, er, ‘What is there no cause for alarm about? Are the wings on fire?’ (over intercom) “The wings are not on fire.” Now they’re thinking, er, ’why should he say that?’ So we say... (The Steward enters.) FO: Oh, how are we doing? 9 S: (looks down the aisle) They’ve stopped eating; Looking a bit worried... C: Good.

So begins a short article about certain forms of "reverse" logic which whilst likely to upset Aristotleans are actually quite well suited to the real world. In vol 1,  no. 2 of the free monthly digest of reasoning literature called (not unreasonably) The Reasoner. Possibly this is originally taken from a sketch in John Cleese on How to Irritate People. It is not entirely clear that this is case. But why else would they mention it?