That reminds me of when I was managing the Parts Dept at our Olds dealer in '86. A tech in the shop was working on an '82 Olds 88 diesel and the engine took off at full throttle - referred to as a "runaway". Due to the nature of diesel operation, there's almost no way to stop it. The ignition is out of the loop so cutting it off does nothing. You have to cut off the air supply at the intake to choke it off. That tech and a couple others stood there throwing shop rags and towels into the intake in an attempt to starve the engine of air, but the suction was so strong they just got sucked through and began shooting out the exhaust tail pipe. Finally, someone got brave and threw one of his uniform jackets over the intake and held it there until it stopped.
Hmmm.. that's really nothing like your story, but it's still cool. Next time, I'll find some way of working my old Epiphone acoustic into the story.