Traveling is always an exciting thing to do. But not too exciting. We don’t want it too exciting because that would involve an element of fear. We don’t want to fear, do we?
On Saturday morning, October 9, I am all tucked up in the Alaska Airlines seat, not a seat open, 107 people waiting to take off from Kahului on our way to Seattle. Backing up the plane. Beep, beep, beep. Now kicking in the engines.
That’s when we stopped. Just stopped. Not going forward, not backward. Frozen. Without the snow and ice.
If an airplane is going to break down, this is a good time. Actually there is never a good time for a plane to break down but to have it happen before you take off, is much better than during takeoff, or while in the air. We all looked around and smiled nervously.
There was no gearing of engines, nor deafening roar. We sat in the middle of the runway, not going forward, not going backward. Parked in a no parking zone.
I thought about those stories, of passengers stuck on an airplane for hours, due to weather delays, or some mechanical malfunction. WHAT! That’s ME!
Suddenly, we began to back up. Slowly, picking up speed. Now this can’t be a good sign. Finally, the pilot addresses the plane.
Seems the hydrolic pressure light blinked on. The airline equivalent of a brake light. Because we want all things mechanical to go wrong before we fly over the ocean, the airline mechanic was going to check things out back at the airport.
Sounds good to me!
Although the flight was delayed by an hour, and more than a few people missed their connecting flights, I remained one happy traveler. After all, I was headed north to meet old friends, make new friends and build cultural collaborations.
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