And now, a word from our pilot

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain. I apologize for our delay from leaving the gate, but the system that starts the airplane is malfunctioning. We’ve sent for a new system and it should be here shortly.”

This is not how I want to start my flight. What system? Obviously, starting an airplane is not a simple matter of turning a key. How can you get another system and then immediately fly? Shouldn’t someone test it out first? What if the plane dies while we are in the air? How will we restart it? When I fly I want everyone to just tell me things are great and there is nothing to worry about.

Then there are the safety instructions. I never listen to them. My thought is that if the plane goes down, I am not going to be needing the seat cushion as a floatation device. I’ve seen photos of what’s left of airliners that crashed into the ocean. By that point you are beyond needing a flotation device. I supposed if you gently ran off a runway into water, then you might have a chance of needing the flotation device.

What I want is for someone to tell me if the noise I hear is just a normal noise or is that a bolt working loose from the wing? I hate to sit where I can even see the wings because I saw that Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner where the gremlin like thing is out there tearing off parts of the airplane.

When ever there is severe turbulence or if there is an unusually loud noise, I always look at the flight attendants. If they look like it’s nothing, then I try not to worry. But, then I worry they are just well trained not to show panic.

Obviously, since I’m writing this blog entry, my plane did not go down due to a faulty starter system. But, I still have the flight home to think about!