Terror in the Skies

Yesterday's crash of an Air France jet in Toronto was terrifying as it unfolded on tv. Yet miraculously, everyone survived the crash. It does make me breathe a bit easier to know if my plane goes down, I still have another chance.

The whole incident reminded me of an old neighbor. Pam was your typical cute, blonde Suburban mom. One day she mentioned that she used to be a flight attendant for Pan Am. I found this odd considering how much she hated to fly. When I asked her about this, she told me about an incident where her barely contained fear bubbled to the surface.

It seems that Pam was on a Pan Am flight across the Atlantic when the pilots received word of turbulence ahead and warned the flight attendants and passengers. Pam, the trooper that she was continued to work her drink cart down the aisle as the ride became increasingly bumpy. Suddenly, the plane hit a large pocket of air. Her drink cart flew up in the air and slid down the aisle. She was, in turned almost toppled to the ground. In her panic, Pam forgot herself and screamed at the top of her lungs, "We're all going to die!" This of course was of no comfort to the very scared passengers.

One of Pam's fellow attendants thought it might be better if she sit and comfort an older female passenger who was completely terrified. However, within 5 minutes, Pam had dug her fingernails into the woman's arm, producing blood.

I never asked her about the end of her career as a flight attendant. But I'm pretty sure that it was this incident at 40,000 feet combined with the fact that she narrowly missed the flight that crashed in Lockerbie.