Here are a couple of my faves:
1) Flying on an Airlink flight from Detroit to Traverse City on a Saab 340. We get about halfway when we have to shut down an engine (this goes just like the Ron White blue-collar comedy bit), and have to turn back to Detroit. There are three of us on this flight, and sure enough, one of them asks "How far can we go on one engine?" And I just HAD to use Ron's answer: "Oh, about as far as the scene of the crash. I bet we beat the paramedics there by half an hour..." Poor girl was shocked. But the rest of the passengers had heard the bit before and had a laugh.
2) Flying Frontier from DEN to MDW, I could see we were coming in too high (I fly into Chicago a lot, and I get used to seeing the common approaches). Sure enough, although PF made a valiant effort to dive toward the runway, we ended up hitting the gas for a go around. Cue a lot of grumbling and grousing from the pax, until a brilliant FA got on the PA and said "Sorry folks, but the Captain was so happy to get here we're doing a victory lap."
I use that one any time I'm on a flight that has a go around now. Always eases the mood of the seatmates around me.
3) Just a couple weeks ago flying from LAS to ORD in cruddy wx (snow, slush, etc.), we were on final and just crossing the airport perimeter when we hit the throttles for the go around (cue my "Victory Lap" statement). No comment from the flight deck until many minutes later as we circle back around, and the Captain says "Sorry for the inconvenience, folks, but we had an aircraft taxi across our runway as we were landing." Once we're finally down and parked, the Cap'n comes out to say his goodbyes as usual, and he decides to let everyone know who to thank for the delay as we disembark: "Thanks for flying with us. Thank Virgin for cutting across our path. Have a good night. Remember, it was Virgin Atlantic that made us go around. Good night. Send a note to Richard Branson, thanking him for the delay. Thanks for flying..."
