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| Capt Dave |
OR: Into the Blue and Back Again.
That is, if your takeoffs equal your landings.
OR: How I converted Jet fuel into Noise for 34 years.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. I would like to welcome you aboard this flight to Cancun. We actually would prefer that you NOT go with us today as there is a major hurricane impacting the airfield there even as we sit here loading this plane. We will be flying this trip today ONLY because we hope to get an airplane full of people evacuated from the storm. If YOU choose to go, you will have to deplane and take your chances as we have a FULL plane of passengers waiting to come back. Please see the ticket agent for a refund and rescheduling, as we are not responsible for you safety after we get you to Cancun. If the weather is to bad before we get to the airport, we do have enough fuel on board to return back to Houston. As I said we are ONLY leaving to help evacuate those who are already there.
Despite this and a couple of other similar announcements by the First Officer (yours truly) and the Lead Flight Attendant and the Gate Agent, over 30 people insisted on going with us! One of those couples manged to get to Miami about a week after the hurricane hit Cancun, a city that would lose electrical power and water for most of a week; and once safely in Miami, proceeded to blame our airline for endangering them on CNN. Their excuse: they were on their honeymoon and didn't hear our announcements!!! They sued, and I and others on the crew were ready to give our testimony, but the case was settled out of court. More of our potential pension money down the drain to sue-happy people. The airline would go into bankruptcy about 6 years later and I lost half my pension for the first time. A threatened bankruptcy would take 40% of my new pension before I retired 19 years later. Oh why didn't I stay in the Air Force?
Welcome to the airline industry!
