You shoot a commercial like that today and several people are going to jail!
Barry's comment over at Liberally Lean reminded me of a favorite commercial Southwest Airlines once aired. Free cocktails, all 1st Class seating, "Stewardesses" in hot pants and Go-Go boots... It truly was the airline Love built!
I still remember my first flight on Southwest. It was a Friday night Hobby - Love flight and I was a "big for my age" 15 year old that looked 20 and was travelling alone. It was a flying party! I had no trouble getting free booze and was grooving on the hot, hot, hotttt stewardesses! (The 70's were awesome in case you missed being there!)
I'd always been enamored with flying and this was my first commercial flight. I made sure to get a window seat so I could watch all the wing movements and see just how fast we were moving on takeoff and landing. It was the fastest I'd ever gone and I wasn't going to miss a second of it!
As I said, it was a flying party that more resembled a Mardi Gras parade than a commuter flight. Booze, music, people dancing in the isles, couples making out while waiting their turn to get in the bathrooms...the whole 9 yards. Everything was greatness until we came in for a landing at Love Field.
Because I was sitting just behind the wing I had a perfect view of the starboard engine. Just as we touched down the pilot went full throttle and the engine roared. One little detail I was unaware of was the thrust reverser system on the early model 737's. The upper engine cowling was an integral part of slowing the aircraft down by throwing the jetwash forward over the wing.
I did not know this.
All I saw as a buzzed up 15 year old first time flyer was a roaring engine at full throttle suddenly coming apart at over 200 miles an hour as we hit the runway.
All I saw as a buzzed up 15 year old first time flyer was a roaring engine at full throttle suddenly coming apart at over 200 miles an hour as we hit the runway.
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can relate to that hysterical passenger in "Airplane!" where everyone is lined up waiting their turn to knock the snot out of her.
And don't call me Shirley!
1 comment:
Yeah, I had my own similar experience in February or March of 1975 on a school field trip.
Despite explicit assurances to the parents that our delegation would not, under any circumstances, fly on Aeroflot (Аэрофлот), once we were in-country, Intourist made all the travel arrangements (we had flown in on an Austrian Airlines DC-9).
So, on our leg from Moscow to Leningrad (St. Petersburg), we boarded a Soviet civilian airliner. Just before touchdown, we thought the engines were coming apart, as they deployed not thrust reversers, but drag chutes, not a common practice in American commercial aviation.
On the return trip to Moscow, we took an overnight sleeper train.
Fun times.
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