I have stuff to post -- some funny, and some just informational, and I imagine that I'll get to that sometime tomorrow. Right now, I'm just too shaken to think straight because one of my WORST nightmares came close to coming true tonight.
As you all know by now, I'm the world's worst traveller, and I especially hate to fly.
This afternoon, my husband and I put our youngest daughter on her flight to Arizona. She was flying out of Baltimore (rather than from Reagan National this time) to Atlanta, and then had a connecting flight to Phoenix. As always, I told her to have a safe flight...
A few hours later, she called us just as she was taxiing to the gate in Atlanta to let us know that she had completed the first leg of her trip, but briefly mentioned that it had been the WORST flight she had ever had in her life. She told us that she would call us again once she was in the terminal.
Aside from a fairly creepy story about some thirty-something man who sat next to her on the flight, and wouldn't leave her alone, there was an "incident" about ten to fifteen minutes before they landed in Atlanta. Our daughter, who was sitting by the window on the left side of the airplane, was trying to ignore the creep nearby when the plane very suddenly and dramatically rolled left, with the wing pointing straight down at a right angle. Our daughter truly thought in that moment that the plane was going to roll all the way over...!!! Then, just as suddenly, the plane flipped to the right with the right wing pointing downward. After this second dramatic dip, the plane stabilized...
Our daughter said that everyone on the plane was freaked out, and she (who has declared in the past that she actually enjoys turbulence) literally shook nonstop for the next fifteen minutes until they landed.
My husband is a private pilot so he knows a lot about what happens in the air. When our daughter called us from Atlanta, and began to describe what had happened to her (still very much shaken), he whispered to me, "wake turbulence." This meant nothing to me... However, as he described to our daughter and to me simultaneously, it is an indicator that air traffic controllers allowed two aircraft to be too close!!! What our daughter's airplane experienced was essentially the effects of mini tornadoes from having been allowed to pass too closely to another plane. Most airline passengers have experienced these kinds of wakes as bumps (when aircraft are at an acceptable distance apart), but when the airplanes are allowed to become too close, these tornado-like conditions can cause aircraft to flip. My husband explained that if our daughter had been in similar conditions in a smaller aircraft, that plane probably WOULD have rolled, with an unpredictable outcome...
He told me very clearly, after our phone conversation with our daughter had ended, that she HAD been in a dangerous situation which had put her in absolute peril. In all of these years that we've been together, and having listened to him speak as a private pilot about various flying issues, I have NEVER heard my husband say anything like this before! He's usually very moderate in what can or can't happen when it comes to flying, but he too was visibly upset by the conditions our daughter had experienced that he felt were the result of negligence by air traffic control.
His first action after our phone call with our daughter ended was to report the incident to the FAA which requires them to investigate.
So here's part two of this story, and you may believe me -- or not -- as you choose.
As you all know, I'm a huge worrier, and I always agonize whenever my daughter has to fly between here and Arizona. However, I was trying very hard this afternoon to maintain a positive state of mind after she and my husband left for Baltimore. I tried to distract myself by doing a little moderating on SOC (always a distraction), by reading a newsletter from a very creative website that I always receive on Sunday mornings that I hadn't had a chance to look at yesterday, and by exploring some internet games.
After my husband had duly delivered our daughter to BWI, and had informed me that he was on his way home, I refocused my attention on an internet puzzle challenge that I have yet to solve. Actually, I was feeling fairly good at that point (relaxed), and was vaguely thinking about what to make for dinner, and about how quiet the household would be this evening with just my husband and me left to amuse ourselves with some mindless TV.
As I was in the process of flipping matching puzzle pieces over, I was suddenly visited by a horrifying image of our daughter's airplane; there was a terrible roar from the engines, and I then envisioned our frightened daughter alone on the plane (meaning without her family) as it proceeded to fall out of the sky. This terrible image was entirely unbidden, and I did everything I could to purge it from my mind because I didn't even want to THINK about such a possibility, or to put the thought itself "out there" in any way... So, I whispered a little prayer, "Lord, keep my daughter safe", shook my head, and returned to my puzzle.
Twenty minutes later our very rattled daughter called to say that she had landed, and had more to tell us once she was in the terminal...
She's safely in Arizona now, but the three of us are all still quite rattled by the incident. Having seen my husband's unexpected reaction over the episode, I think that it has made me all the more aware of how much our daughter was in peril this afternoon.
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Oh good lord, Carolyn! I am so sorry that happened! It really makes you wonder about flying at all, doesn't ti? But all are safe now, and the scare is over. Whew!!
I had a very similar experience flying home from Caracas on Air Venezuela and was with a friend who is also a private pilot. I'll leave it at that, but it's not an experience you easily ever forget.
Mothers DO have that "shudder" when their babies are in danger, and of course I believe you, as again, I've had that happen to me as well. Some days, I wish with all my heart that my kids were all within a block or two of me, and I could check in on them whenever I needed to. But life isn't like that.
Thanks for sharing this terrible incident. I'm afraid there isn't a lesson for any of us in this, but a quiet "thank God".
yes thank God that things turned out okay. I only have a 3 year old who has never been away from me long enough to be in that kind of danger but I don't doubt for a second the power of mothers intuition. Thank goodness your husband was knowledgable in these kinds of situations. And thank goodness she wasn't in a puddle jumper. Wow, thanks for sharing this tough experience with us. I am so happy to hear that she is safe and sound in Phoenix.
Some days, I wish with all my heart that my kids were all within a block or two of me, and I could check in on them whenever I needed to. But life isn't like that. ".
KaeEll, if I had my way, I would own a Kennedy-like compound where each of my children would have their own place to live, but within walking distance on my property! Living within a block or two would also be acceptable...
Thanks, guys, for listening to me. I can tell you that I said A LOT of prayers again last night when I went to bed, as in "thank You, thank You, thank You..."
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I'm glad everything is ok. I'm still fending off the tail end of my eye issues. I got some great homeopathic drops for it and most of the symptoms are all gone. My vision is a lil blurry still in that eye but I'll take it compared to the previous issues. I still can brely stand to look at teh computer so I'll only be on very briefly.
Jess, it's been my experience that homeopathic remedies aren't terrible effective with some bacterial infections. I'd be awfully tempted to get some antibiotic drops from the doctor. They could have it cleared up in a few hours.
Very often acute conditions are best attacked head on with big guns. Pink eye is one of them.
Well, Kae you're gonna laugh. I am glad I picked those eye drops up because I never had actual conjunctivitis. It's been a sinus infection all along. Unfortunately since I'm nursing I'm not able to take what they have to give me and she figures I'm in my last days of it anyways so the best thing I can do is just make myself comfortable for the tie being because it would take me 3 days to pump enough milk for him to take in while I would be on the meds .. just a total pain. I guess it explains why the worst part only lasted a little while. The hubby is on my sit list majorly though because he drug me to his friends (ok well he had a heart attack so I didn't feel too bad about going , but they are horrible smokers and his wife never goes outside) needless to say it made things worse.
Moore, I'm so glad you're daughter is ok. I totally believe you when you sensed something was wrong. I wanted to type more but it's hectic here I'm disinfecting the house just in case.
Holy Crap! That gave me the heebie-jeebies just reading it, and I got severe goosebumps! I am so very, very glad your daughter is okay. Reaffirms my fright of flying.
