I’m not the first person to note that air travel isn’t what it used to be. I’m just the most recent. I’ve been on three planes in the last two days, and two of the flights had their share of problems.
Forget food on planes; that went out the window ages ago. Forget comfort. Sardines have it better than airline passengers. And, finally, forget smooth landings. I’m of the opinion when the landing is bumpy the First Officer is new and practicing his approach maybe for the third time ever.
An on-time departure is an oxymoron too. Case in point: Yesterday I was to take a puddle jumper from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to South Bend at 1:15 PM. Instead of boarding the plane at the appointed time, however, a ground crew member announced that the plane was late and departure time was rescheduled to 2:15. She said the plane was arriving from elsewhere and as soon as it landed the maintenance crew would check it and clean it for us.
It sounded reassuring, but at 2:15 the same ground crew member came on the intercom again. “The good news is your plane has landed and your crew is ready to go.” Now anybody who’s heard this approach knows that bad news is lurking close by. Sure enough, the door to the plane was broken and maintenance was working on fixing it, government regulations requiring a working door for take-off.
I began to evaluate other modes of getting to South Bend, but when I asked if flying standby on the next plane was possible, I was informed that plane was late too. Finally, at 3:15 the ground crew announced our plane was ready and told passengers to get out their boarding passes. We scurried into formation like geese preparing for flight.
The actual trip itself was uneventful, although the Captain took it upon himself to apologize for the tardiness by way of a lengthy explanation about the door. It seems an elusive “someone” had broken the door exiting the plane in Oklahoma City. The flight crew then piloted the plane to Chicago without passengers, where maintenance was to fix the door. Only the part for the door was in St. Louis, as was a mechanic to install it. So they too were flown to Chicago.
I won’t mention the airline company by name, but it did make me wonder if its resources were stretched a little thin. It also made me less confident that the plane’s other parts would hold together until we reached South Bend. Needless to say, they did or I wouldn’t be writing this. In appreciation, I even forgave the First Officer for plopping us on the tarmac instead of gliding us onto it.
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