thependulumswings

Almost to this day a year has passed since I went from flying about 75,000 miles on business trips a year for 25 plus years to not.  Sure I’ve flown a bit for getaways in the last twelve months.  One such getaway was last week’s Orlando trip.  As I got into my seat for the flight back the news broke that Boeing 737 Max 9’s were being grounded in some countries due to similarities surrounding two recent crashes.  Jeez I thought.  Actually a stronger word came to mind.

Compounding the angst was a three sided laminated foldout in the seat pocket directly in front of me.  It spoke to the information and safety features of this particular plane.  This plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8.  Hmm.   Way too close for comfort I thought.   And, sure enough, a day later the FAA took both the 8’s and the 9’s out of the sky pending further investigation.

Surely you have heard someone say “air travel is safer than driving a car.”  Or you might have heard “you have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than dying in a plane crash.”  That all sounds good until it doesn’t sound good at all.  It didn’t sound good to me then, and it doesn’t now.

Why not?  Well, it turns out that a great friend of mine was on a Delta flight about 25 years ago that essentially crashed landed, overshot the runway, and ended up under the fence at the end of the field.  Luckily he walked away from it.  It also reminded me of a flight a dozen years back to sunny and warm Milwaukee.  The flight attendant had just announced over the PA that I was on board that day and this was the flight that would take me over a million air miles. Surely they have some award for insanity?   A partly cloudy ascent gave way to more clouds when a bolt out of the gray very brightly and strongly hammered the wing.  Lightening had struck the plane. I saw it all too vividly from my emergency window seat.   Remember, “you have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning that dying in a plane crash.”

I wonder what the saying is about dying from lightning in a plane?   Surely the words “gosh darn” or maybe a bit worse would be included.  The plane shook off the shake that the bolt put through the fuselage and it was if nothing had happened.  Although it got very quiet when the copilot quickly exited the cockpit and did a visual inspection of all that he could see as soon as he could see it.

What’s the moral of the story?  Air travel is very safe until it’s not.  I don’t miss flying and all of the before, during, and after incivility that accompanies it.  No I don’t, not at all.

Fly safely.