Some years ago I was flying back to an airport near where I lived from Los Angeles on a commercial jet. It was an unusual trip. On the way we went through a thunder storm. Lightening - a lot of bouncing around but others have had this experience.
As we got closer to the airport we started coming in on the glide path as always and because it was stormy there I think they made us go around once but then coming back coming in on the glide path closer and closer to the ground the plane had just touched down when all of a sudden, and I didn't know a full sized commercial jet could do this, it took off like a rocket even though it was just settling down on the wheels the way they do.
It literally took off like a rocket almost straight up in the air and did a partial snap roll. All I know is that the plane turned so sharply that the right wing was pointed straight down and all the passengers got a little closer to each other there for a moment. Needless to say it was so quiet you could of heard a pin drop in there though I did hear a few prayers but the plane leveled off and did another long slow turn around the airport - maybe for 20 minutes.
There was no sound. Nobody said anything from the pilots area and the cabin crew was quiet as well and it was quiet in the cabin - very quiet.
Then the pilot came on and while he was announcing that we would be going in again and that he was sure that we'd have a good safe landing I could hear somebody else up there in the cockpit, using plenty of expletive deleted words while at the same time obviously trying to control himself, blaming somebody.
It turns out, I found out later, that there had been a snafu - a mix-up by ground personnel - I don't know who and our plane had been guided to land but because the pilots were alert they could see that if we had continued with our landing we would have run right smack into another plane.
I'm bringing this to your attention not because I want to offer you the thrill of the day but rather because I want to compliment the pilots of this airline. I'm not going to mention the name of the airline, I'm just going to say that it was one of my favorites and I just want to compliment pilots everywhere for their vigilance, for their ability and for how many lives they save which very often is never in the press but I think it happens every day.
Thank you commercial pilots and other pilots for doing such a wonderful job.
Goodlife to you all.
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Photo is © B. Kim Barnes, used with permission, and can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimbar/1769691687/
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