Hearing the captain from the cockpit say “Ladies and Gentlemen” …. Brace yourself; the bad news is about to land.
“We’re developing a situation at the front of this plane, and we are asking Denver tower for permission to land.” What in the world does it mean? Is the front of the plane on fire? Perhaps a bird came through the windshield? A stray bullet? What can possibly go wrong on a direct flight from Kansas City to San Francisco? This is an evening flight, about 35 people on board on a Sunday trying to start business in the West Coast Monday morning.
Here we are at 35,000 feet, looking into the darkness, and listening to the pilot asking us not to be alarmed; how close am I to the door and are the other passengers also looking at the same two small exit doors? I would hope to be the one person reaching those doors first.
The flight attendant is now searching for a doctor, a nurse, a therapist, a rescue squad, anything! I wonder if someone is having a heart attack, a baby or a fainting spell; or, forgive me for thinking it could be food poisoning. Looking at the small dish I have in front of me, something green and wilted looks like lettuce, one small carrot, one baby tomato and some gooey orange stuff covering all, I look around to see if anyone is turning green or looking for the white small bag in the compartment in front of the seat, or worse.
The captain again “we have been cleared to land in Denver; we will be in Denver only long enough to assist one of our flight attendants deplane, then we will be back on our way to San Francisco.
Looking out the window in Denver, there were ambulances, EMTs, a couple of doctors and several other personnel waiting for the plane to arrive at the designated gate. Being winter, the tarmac was frozen solid and unable to roll out toward the front door of the plane, so the EMTs had to use the rear door. After an hour, they left with a flight attendant on a gurney, rolled down the middle of the plane toward the back entrance. How they rolled her down the emergency stair is a mystery. She didn’t look too well laying on the gurney and I’m sure she felt even worse after getting down in that particular way.
The captain again: Ladies and Gentlemen, according to FAA regulations, this airplane is not able to leave the gate with just two flight attendants. We are searching now for a third person so we can be on our way to San Francisco, but it doesn’t look good, we will keep you informed.” At this point, several of us raised our hands and volunteer as flight attendants, as there were only 35 passengers, how hard could it be? The captain did not agree with our suggestions, as no one had any experience.
After about forty-five minutes, we hear: “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the airport manager, we were not successful in getting another flight attendant for this flight, so I have two suggestions: You can remain in Denver, we will pay for the hotel and meals, or you can catch a flight to San Francisco via Las Vegas. There are only 13 seats available. By the show of hands, let me know who is willing to catch the flight and who is willing to remain in Denver. It is freezing outside, so bundle up and come with me. I took the bait and showed my hand.
Arriving at the counter, the counterpersons were ignorant of the arrangements and proceeded to deny our requests, until the supervisor asked them to count the empty seats and allowed us to go. At our arrival in Las Vegas, in the middle of the night and no plane to San Francisco… all flights had already departed, next flight, 5 am.