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• Friday, January 27, 2006 07:22 AM

  It's Like Flying in a Cattle Car With Wings...

  I was flying on Frontier (a mistake I do not plan to make again), and we were coming in for a landing at Washington National (which is already an adventure unto itself), and about 50 feet above the runway, the plane suddenly goes into full thrust, and we're all pushed back into our seats as we make a rapid ascent. Aborted landing. Terrifying for a passenger. Maybe Patrick you can explain whether it's dangerous, but it sure feels scary when you're in the passenger seat...

  People were crying and frightened, especially as 30 minutes outside DCA, they'd made the required "You have to stay in your seats, no bathroom, no nothing for the final 30 minutes of the flight into Washington National," a first-hand reminder of 9/11, and the fact that you are coming into Washington...

  People were speculating -- was there a problem in DC? Was our plane hijacked? What was going on?

  Needless to say, we had NO announcement from the pilots. NOTHING. Zippo.

  We flew about 20 minutes north, and then circled and came back for another final approach over the Potomac. The second time we finally landed without incident.

  When I was getting off the plane, I asked the flight attendant why the pilot didn't let us know why the landing had been aborted. She looked at me like I had 3 heads, and just said "buh-BYE!"

  So I wrote to Frontier and asked, and I too got no answer, and a $100 voucher (which I threw away, because I'm not flying this airline again).

  I talked with a friend who is a pilot, and he said it was probably another plane on the runway.

  Fine, Frontier. You don't like my questions? You don't get my business.

  I've been on an aborted landing once before, going into Dallas/Fort Worth, and that time I was behind 2 deadheading pilots, who were watching the thunderstorms were were flying through warily (needless to say, I was eavesdropping unabashedly), and they were concerned about the landing as we were approaching, and after we aborted, they sounded pretty keyed up, but they were also impressed...

  This pilot (American Airlines) got on the intercom and said we'd had a wind shear warning right before landing, and that he'd had to pull up last minute to get out of it. Bravo for him, for his skill AND for having the guts to tell us what had happened...

  I'm an airline brat since I was 11, and I have many family and family friends who were airline employees who worked in the 60s and 70s, and there was a great deal of respect for passengers in those days. I flew a lot as a non-rev standby passenger on employee passes in those days, and we all dressed up, acted politely, and passengers were king.

  Now, passengers are viewed as a necessary evil...

  It seems as if EVERY airline is "Trans-Eastern Airlines*" -- they're all like "flying in a cattle car with wings..."

  -- Mary

  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

  * Long ago, Saturday Night Live did a spoof of an airline commercial, and basically parodied -- quite accurately -- the derisive attitude many airline employees have about passengers, all the while, trying to sell you on the idea that flying is such a wondrous joy. Their theme song...

  "It's like flying in a cattle car with wings..."

  Take a look at the Saturday Night Live transcript for the "Trans-Eastern Airlines" commercial. One of my all-time favorite SNL ad parodies and a dead-on capture of the airline industry! http://snltranscripts.jt.org/81/81etranseastern.phtml

  —AncientAssyrian Read AncientAssyrian's other letters
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