OK OnB I'm going to suspend my disbelief here and imagine that you have written a serious post.... I may come to regret this....
Aircrew often make decisions in consultation with company ground staff of an operational nature - i.e. which airfield the company would prefer them to divert to when a 'situation' develops. The company does not tell them which engine to shut down or any other such thing. The final call rests with the crew or, more specifically, the captain.
A swarm of bees is going to have to be pretty bloody dense to affect a JET engine which DOES NOT have a carburettor. I think this explanation was offered as an analogy which might have made more sense to passengers.
Our friends in the media are occasionally(?) particularly inept at writing aircraft related stories with any sort of technical accuracy. I can almost always get a good laugh out of reading a journalist's interpretation of any flight-related story. Of particular comic value was the unforgettable piece in the Times some years ago where a journalist attempted to describe the dangerous effects of flying near thunderstorms. The principal cause of dangerous height loss on final approach in the vicinity of thunderstorms was attributed to the weight of water built up on the wings from the rain....
The stuff written in the papers isn't for us as flight crew, more for the general public, but it wouldn't hurt to get it a bit more 'right' now and again.
At this rate we'll have passengers peering into CFM56s looking for the K&N air filters...!
