My Scary, Funny Airplane Adventure
By: John O'Neill
Tags: Plane, Life, This Happened To Me, Travel

My Scary, Funny Airplane Adventure

It Was Only Funny In Retrospect

Image by Terri Paju from Pixabay

It started uneventfully. There was a conference in Montana that I was going to attend. The airplane from Boston was going to Denver, then a connecting flight would take me to my final destination. The boarding of the plane was on time, and the passengers were seated, and all luggage secured in the overhead bins. Then we waited. A half hour went by, and then a steward came on the speaker and told us that the delay was due to the fact that the pilot was late. Fifteen more minutes went by.The steward again addressed the passengers: “Apparently the pilot was at a party last night, and is indisposed this morning.We are now trying to contact his backup.” Another wait, this time for twenty minutes. “The backup pilot has been contacted. Unfortunately he was at the same party, and is also unable to take this flight. The good news is that the supervisor on call has agreed to pilot this trip. We apologize for the delay, and we estimate that we now will be leaving in no more than fifteen more minutes. Enjoy your ride.”

Of course, the delays meant that I missed my connecting flight, and there would not be another until the next day. But not to worry, the airline had a plan. A motorized vehicle was waiting for me in Denver. This whisked me across the airport to the opposite end where a plane was held so that I could catch a flight to Seattle, Washington. So far so good, but then in Seattle they showed me the plane that would take me on to Montana. It was an eight passenger that wasn’t much bigger than some of the SUVs you see today. I should have said at the beginning of this story, that I really don’t like flying, and the thought of crossing over the Rocky Mountains in this little thing had me running to the nearest bathroom. The plane finally took off, and I was on it, at least physically. We arrived in Montana without further incident.

But then there was the trip back. My flight left Montana on time with the goal of reaching Denver for a connection back home to Boston. Just when I was starting to think that at least this leg of the journey would go fine, someone yelled,”Oh my god, is there a doctor on board? We appear to have a medical emergency!” There was a doctor, and it was quickly determined that the plane would have to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport so that the apparent heart attack victim could be rushed to a local hospital. So we landed in Idaho. And by the time we received the clearance to continue on to Denver, it was clear that once again I would miss my connecting flight. However, this only meant a couple of hours more at the Denver airport before the next flight from another airline would take me home. Ah, at last the last leg of this adventure was underway, nothing else could go wrong now.

Then the captain came on the speaker to tell us to fasten our seat belts as we were approaching an area of turbulence. Turbulence is such a bland understated term. In fact,the plane proceeded to act like a bucking bronco, and I was praying non- stop until we got through that patch. When the lights of Boston were finally in view, I’ll admit to some moisture appearing around the area of my eyes. The thought of the rush hour traffic ahead did nothing to diminish my sense of gratitude for simply being alive.