I’m flying from northern Michigan to Phoenix, AZ, (by way of Chicago) Feb. 11 for a nine-day vacation there.
The Chicago-to-Phoenix leg, there and back, I’m flying on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, through American Airlines. That’s the same aircraft model series that crashed off L.A.
OK, fine. Stuff happens, right? Then I hear on the news yesterday that an ** American Airlines MD-80 ** had to turn around and make an emergency landing after taking off from ** Phoenix ** when the pilot reported having problems eerily similar to those the L.A. crash pilots reported.
I am actually a teensy bit nervous about this. My tickets are nonrefundable. I suppose I could skip it anyway, but that’s a lot of money for poor folk like me, and besides, I need a stress-relieving vay-cay so bad I’m almost willing to play Russian Roulette.
Anyway, it’s been good posting with y’all.
“You should tell the truth, expose the lies and live in the moment.” - Bill Hicks
Fuck it. I’ve always wondered what it’s like in a plane that everyone knows is on its way down. That’s gotta be the ultimate amusement park ride. Just sit back and enjoy it.
Anyway the MD-80 is a very safe plane with a good track record. You have nothing to worry about.
“A bird in the hand is the Devil’s workshop; it is the goose that laid the bad apple.” - TennHippie
And – if you have time, of course – let us (special, Padeye, and me) know if you’d be interested in hooking up with the Phoenix area Dopers for drinks, pool, coffee, whatever, while you’re here.
Don’t think of it as a bad omen. The reports I have heard say the MD-80 has a far below average accident rate, 25% of the rest of the aviation fleet IIRC.
Have a fun trip and see you when you get here.
My Jesus fish can beat up your Darwin fish but forgives it instead.
Everybody relax, everything being equal, when was the last time you heard of two plane crashes in rapid succession, both from the same carrier OR both the same plane type.
No one could be safer than the two of you !
“Wisdom is the booby prize, they give you when you’ve been unwise.”
If you’re planning on a Phoenix vacation, I’d say you were doomed, in any case. (Although if you want a good dinner, Tucson is a short 120 miles away.)
Yeah, well, I’ll be along in thirty years or so, when the emphysema gets me. Bermuda shorts, Hawaiian shirt, ghastly pale skin, knobbly knees and all. Whining and moaning about how I can’t get a decent pastrami sandwich or a Cel-Ray Tonic after one AM.
I spent a year and a half in the plane crash business (adjusting insurance, not actually crashing planes) so I know exactly how little it takes to bring one of those things down. I never fly, myself.
I’m flying Alaska Air to Vegas on Monday… so I guess the chances I’ll be the missing doper are only 1/3. Better odds than I’ll get once I’m there I guess…
http://www.madpoet.com
I’ve got a little black book with me poems in. I’ve got a bag, toothbrush, and a comb.
UncleBeer said:
I’ve always wondered what it’s like in a plane that everyone knows is on its way down. <<
For me it seemed to go very quickly until we hit on a wingtip and the nose and cartwheeled.
It seemed to take a very very long time to stop. My thought process was “I wish it would stop because I’m still alive.”
I walked away from the crash with a chipped tooth and a cracked sternum, but the pilot’s back was broken.
