Catching up
Hello blog world, I've had a lot going on these past few weeks including a death in the family so I haven't been flying much. The airline news has been a huge buzz the past couple of weeks. Last week in my home town a private jet went down due to wind and poor visibility. It crashed into a home killing 2 people on board. Luckily no one was home when it happened. The big story is southwest and their hole-ly planes if you will. While watching some coverage on the news it was said that a few passengers past out including a flight attendant. Did she forget to secure her own mask before assisting others? And for the few passengers who did pass out, I am sure the next time they fly they will actually listen and pay attention to the safety demo. I have noticed more passengers watching and listening to the safety demo this week. Yeah it's good stuff! It is truly unfortunate to see southwest cancel so many flights for aircraft inspection. Maybe the FAA has been cutting them too much slack? They have been fined in the past for failing inspections. We may never know!
Tonight was very interesting. Our flight was scheduled for Canada. The captain with us was just off IOE and new to the aircraft. To make a long story short when a captain first starts out on a new aircraft there are some things he/she isn't allowed to do. Our situation was bad weather. My company had to get another captain to swap with ours. We call that reassigning. They replaced our captain with a guy who was suppose to go to Key West. So as you can imagine this guy was pissed! He was throwing his bags around cussing and yelling in front of the passengers. Wow dude chill out! I was worried that he was so mad he wouldn't perform his job safely. Stuff like that just crosses my mind. After he got settled in off to Canada we go. It's time to land so we did our thing and took a seat. It was bad weather here with lots of rain and low clouds. So what happens next? Missed approach! We climbed back up and starting circling. After about 15 minutes of waiting for conditions to improve we landed safely. Another successful landing! As my grandfather always told me, take offs are optional and landings are required. I must say the passengers were very kind patient and understanding, which made tonight so much easier.
As much as I love Southwest for the way they treat their employees- and the direct effect that has on customer service.......you have to ask yourself as a passenger if you are paying less for your ticket because they are skipping essential procedures that might compromise your safety? The reality though is that the planes are getting older & require more routine checkups in the hangar.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the FAA will realize that.....and legislators will take the best interest of Passengers and Flight Crews to heart when deciding to vote Yes or No to new legislations......anyways....Glad to you're back!