We were on flight 259

flight 259 c.jpg We don't like flying. We think it's scary. So it was our special luck to fly to Burbank airport (Los Angeles) on Jet Blue tonight and watch flight #292, our return flight, circle LAX for 4 hours before landing safely (thank God!). Since Jet Blue has television sets in every seat, everyone was watching the live coverage, talking amongst themselves, trying not to be scared shitless and just glad it wasn't us.

Here's a pic of what we saw on the plane as well as our lovely cabin. Oh, and by the way, Jet Blue - despite their front wheel issues - is an absolutely lovely airline and the attendants and captain were first rate. So were the passengers. When Flight #292 landed safely, everyone cheered, and when we landed, everyone cheered.

Comments (9)

NYC is so glad you're safe and sound in LA!

posted by skgr on 2005-09-22 09:12:36

Yes! So glad to see you are safe and sound. What a harrowing event. And kudos to that pilot for taking a scary situation and doing the best job possible.

So, will you fly jet blue again?

posted by christy on 2005-09-22 09:37:08

Yikes - heard about this on the news this morning -- never thought I'd have such a "personal" connection to the incident. Thank goodness you are ok!!!

posted by Frank on 2005-09-22 10:32:44

Yikes! Glad you were safe, Maxwell. I was watching that, too (safely on the ground) and was trying to take heart by thinking of my mother, a stew back in the late 50s and early 60s, who is utterly blase about engines stopping, propellers falling off, wheels not descending and other malfunctions, because she's seen them all.

posted by Fiona on 2005-09-22 10:32:46

Yikes. I bet when JetBlue installed TVs at every seat, they had no idea the monitors would be used for purposes like these.

Um, I wonder if the people on the actual flight that had the trouble were watching it too?

posted by patrick (the other one) on 2005-09-22 11:27:41

Yes, I read that the people on the flight were watching it live. Now, that would be surreal!

posted by Jon B on 2005-09-22 11:31:52

Glad you were on flight 259 and not 292! When we were watching the live coverage in my office last night, a thought flashed that this might be your flight since more and more folks are using JetBlue for their cross-country hops. Luckily, happy endings for all. (BTW, I did see on the late news last night that folks on 292 were watching news coverage on their monitors until the TVs were switched off about an hour prior to final landing. Frightening.)

posted by Enrique on 2005-09-22 13:32:43

We heard as well that the folk on 292 were watching their sets - not that they were going to learn anything new, however - and the funny thing about all this information was that the more you watched it the calmer we all got (at least on our plane). The worst moments were the first one when we realized what was going on up ahead and whether or not we were in any danger at all, but after that, watching the tv was sort of like taking sedatives. If it had been off, it might have been worse.

somehow, feeling like we knew what was going on made us calmer than being left in the dark with only our worries to grow.

Nevertheless, i am not looking forward to flying back on Saturday. And yes, i (guess i) will be flying Jet Blue.

FYI, the pilot and the crew on our flight said NOTHING about any of this while we were in flight and gave us all the usual "thank you for flying with us" and "hope your flight was good" and "have a pleasant stay in the LA area, and hope to see you on a Jet Blue flight again" sort of stuff at the end. it was sort of eerie not to have them mention ANYTHING.

they even said the thing about how Jet Blue gets a new plane every month and the people in my row said, "that will be at least two new planes THIS month."

posted by maxwell on 2005-09-22 20:05:57

My old boss from a previous company was on 292. He just posted his account of it. www.hitsdailydouble.com/news/newsPage.cgi?news05859m01

posted by Enrique on 2005-09-23 14:01:24