WhiteStone has a good entry at her blog today about the Northwest pilots who recently lost their jobs after overshooting their intended destination.
When I first heard about the incident, it brought to mind something that happened to me a long time ago. Those who read my 360 blog might remember an entry where I told about getting my single engine pilot’s license (VFR) shortly after I got married. My husband was bound and determined to get his and with a history of heart disease in his family, I decided I needed to have mine, too. I sure didn’t want to get caught up in the air with him and not be able to land the plane if I ever had to!
I have no idea what getting a license these days entails. At that time, one of the requirements was to plan a “long cross country” flight. It had to include stops at several different airports, one of which had to be a specific distance away. It was a lengthy solo flight and required refueling at one point. My flight plan took me from Arkansas to Texas, then to Louisiana before returning home. As I neared the final airport on my route, the tower put me on a heading for approach. I complied, saw the airport ahead of me, and then watched as it receded into the distance behind me! I called the tower again and it was obvious what had happened. They’d forgotten about me!! I could hear laughter in the background! I was already pretty nervous, so it was no laughing matter to me at the time (even though I can tell the story now and it seems funny). Once I landed, I vaguely remember getting my log book initialed by someone on the ground then getting back in the air as soon as possible to get back home.
My experience was pretty trivial in the big scheme of things. It was just me. But you think about the hundreds of flights each day carrying hundreds of people from one place to another. It’s important that pilots AND controllers stay vigilant and never get complacent.
- Kelly
- Making my way through the ups and downs of life, holding fast to my favorite Bible verse: "For we walk by faith, not by sight." ~2 Corinthians 5:7. I began blogging in earnest at Yahoo360 on October 24, 2005. (briefly using LiveJournal and blog-city prior to that) In June 2008 I moved to Blogger. I'm now at WordPress where I hope to remain.
7 comments:
You are one brave woman! I didn't realize the airline was Northwest where the pilot overshot the runway (so to speak). I'm flying with them in December. Yikes!
Did y'all get any bad weather? Mama said it was wild in Shreveport and Bossier. My niece's apartment building was damaged and she's staying at Mama's. It's been flooding here all day long, but cooler. This weather has been horrible. Yesterday it was too hot to go out the door and today it's in the 50's!
Great post, Kelly. Have a fun Halloween! Blessings!
It got pretty rough around here, too, Marion. I know of one tornado that touched down and there were other sightings. Yesterday morning it was hot and muggy, then within 24 hours we dropped 15 or 20 degrees and got more than 6 inches of rain dumped on us!!
My son's apartment (he's one county to the left of us) got flooded terribly. I'm SICK of rain!!!
Hope you have a good Halloween, too!!
I don't think I knew this about them forgetting about you. That's scary!
Frankly, I don't give a flip WHAT those NW pilots were doing OTHER than paying attention to the business at hand!!!
They SHOULD have their licences yanked!!
Oh, and Yep, Happy Halloween!!! I'm almost Halloweened out from this week at school but, needless to say, here at home it's just beginning.... I expect a LARGE number of kids tomorrow night due to it being Sat.
If I knew you had gotten your pilot's license, I forgot. You convey the story very well (don't ever say you are not a writer) and now it's funny -- they FORGOT ABOUT YOU???? Funny now; I'm sure it wasn't then!
They forgot about you. Funny thing. Even now, doesn't seem all that funny to me. Yet the one thing that I know for a fact is that I am scatter brained sometimes. I don't ever want to be an air traffic controller. Or a pilot either.
A timely story. Hard to believe they forgot about you, and hard to believe the NW pilots. One of my least favorite airlines, I just can't imagine what those guys were thinking.
quid
Post a Comment