This weekend as I sit at home with the cats and practice “social distancing” I had a blast from the past appear in my Inbox. I got an email yesterday from an author in Oregon asking about my experience from United flight 173. How she found me is a mystery as I’ve never signed up for any reunions, tho I did drive up to the location last December for the 40th anniversary. Maybe it was my car’s license plate - she got my name from the DMV and googled it? I didn’t ask her because I didn’t want to know. I have a call scheduled in a few days to talk about it. Last night I had the recurring nightmare for the first time in a long while.
How I see this this applying to this forum is in mistakes of the past making aviation safer. United 173 brought us CRM and other incidents have brought better aircraft construction, engine design, procedures, etc.
All this through the lens of “we’re safer now because of…”
My memories are few but laser etched in my brain. I was rerouted through Denver because O’Hare was having weather. My father the Boeing guy always said to sit in the back because it’s stronger (yeah, sure Dad I will, okay), so I was in about seat 33F. Because there was a gear issue the flight attendants (they seemed old and cranky) had us all briefed and prepared. Then of course the fuel issue, and promptly a fairly dark cabin. I remember bright flashes of blue-green light as we went through high power lines and the sight of seats and insulation coming at me. That last bit is the recurring nightmare that followed me throughout my career of traveling for business. The last things I remember were sitting in someone’s yard with a blanket on me, my father being irate he had to drive to Portland to get me, and my flattened suitcase arriving a month later in a heavy duty plastic bag.
Since then I’ve always sat in the next to the last rows even on Asia flights when I could’ve gone business class. I call it my lucky seat. Mrs Towrope sits up front and I get the exasperated eyeroll when I’m last off the plane.
So what other leaps in safety have come from unfortunate happenings? The Comet windows for one…