Flying lessons

If there's one thing that my frequent flying has taught me, it's that I hate being in a crowd of people. I have no fear of speeding down a runway at 300 miles per hour and hurtling a several ton piece of metal into the air in hopes that it somehow (magically) floats up into the clouds. I'm not one to get antsy in the midst of some turbulence- it actually takes quite a bit of jostling to make me nervous. I am a little anxious on landing but only after all wheels are on the ground and one small jerk to the left could send our jet hurtling wing over wing across the runway.

What really occupies the dark shadows of my mind from the time I get on the plane until the time I have safely set my feet on real solid ground is the fact that I know human nature all too well. I know people panic, I know they do crazy, senseless things when you add a little stress to the mix. I've seen it, I've read about it and I've heard it on tv.

I don't think I truly understood how grave the situation could get until sitting on the runway in New York waiting for the plane ahead of us to vacate our parking spot. People were tense from the long and already late flight from Italy and no one wanted to miss their connecting flight. Most of the people on the plane had been on my plane from Naples to Milan-Malpensa and had missed their connecting flight back to the U.S. We were put up in a rather nice hotel outside of Milan and put on a flight the following day. My luggage was MIA but I figured my luggage would eventually make it to San Diego after circling the globe for perhaps a month... but I didn't really feel like spending the next month in and out of airports while they tried to ship me back to California.

As we sat on the runway that day, people began to get restless and try to move about to get their things out of the overhead compartments. The flight attendants tried to get people to sit down and keep their seat belts on. I could hear the frustration in their voices as these demands were ignored. It was then I began to fear for my life. Obviously the people on the plane were out of the control of the flight attendants. I curled up tightly next to my window in preparation to protect my head should a mass of people come crawling over the seats to get to the exit door- that was closed. An angry man stood up in the aisle and made it clear to everyone that he was unhappy and inconvenienced. The flight attendant decided to take her seat and I could smell her fear from 12 rows back. I think being next to the window and away from any exits would have saved my life that day had anything happened. Everyone would be pushing and shoving (and trampling people to death) toward the exit and if I stayed real still and protected my head and vital organs, I would survive... and climb over all the dead bodies on my way out.

Needless to say, I survived that ordeal but it taught me a lesson. People become wild animals when caged in together for extended periods of time. I would rather hurtle to my death inside a wounded airplane than be trampled by panicked citizens while safely on the ground. It happens. I've seen so many times where people would have survived had they all remained calm. Panicked crowds have caused countless deaths throughout time and I think it's the most awful way to go.

So when my plane bounces about on invisible pockets of air while cups and bags of pretzels slide around, I feel safe knowing that everyone is afraid enough to at least stay buckled in their own seat. I can guarantee you that no one is up and about running around like a madman.