The Airplane Flight From Hell

I was a consciencious objector from the late stupidity in Vietnam.

I was a part of a class action lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

At the time there were a very limited number of reasons you could apply for CO status. They were all based on religious affiliation. If you were a Quaker or a Seventh Day Adventist it was OK. Philosophical objections were not allowed.

The case went to the Supreme Court, and they found that people could object to war without cloaking in it religion.

We had all been on hold by the draft board until the case was settled. The Court made it's decision, and the following week we were all drafted. I have a couple of interresting story's about all of that, but I went to basic training and AIT (Anvanced Individual Training) at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

When I was about ready ot graduate from AIT, the called me out of class. My grandmother had passed on, and they were letting me leave early so I could go home for the funeral.

I had a ticket, but I had to go back to the barracks and pack and grab a cab to the airport.

As I pulled up to the airport, I saw my flight taking off. Shit, shit shit.

I went in to the terminal and started exploring my opportunities. How could I trade in my ticket and still get home in time for the funeral. I went to every ticket terminal.

Finally I found a redeye flight out of San Ontonio which would connect with another flight in L.A.. and take me to Portland where I would connect up for Seattle.

Way Cool.

Podunct Airlines. I didn't care.

We took off, and headed for the coast. When we got in the air and were cruising along I looked out the window. I was located just behind the wing. I looked out and saw a lot of smoke coming out of the inboard engine.

I stopped a stewardess and pointed out the window and said I didn't think it should have flames coming out of that particular area of the engine. The Stew looked and turned a couple of shades of pale. She ran off towards the cockpit.

Shortly after that the Captain came on the announcer system and said "Some of you may have noticed an unusual condition in engine number 2. We will be makeing an unscheduled stop in El Paso to address this problem. There is no reason to be alarmed."

We came out of the clouds into El Paso, and every emergency truck and the foam vehicles and all of the emergency equipment were all deployed along the runway.

I remember thinking "Oh shit, this must be worse that I thought."

We landed without incident, and the pilot came on the public announce system and said "Passengers may now disenbark to the terminal while we fix this minor problem" He was so much in control that we just disembarkes to the termminal.

We saw various vehicles come and tend the plane. Other than being a little pissed that we were sitting when we were supposed to be flying, there wasn't a whole lot of concern.

After about 20 minutes, the terminal announce systen came on to tell us that we were OK to go back on board.

We started to reboard the aricraft, when the pilot came over the announce system and YELLED "EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE AIRCRAFT NOW!!!!"

We all ran for the terminal.

The refueling panel in the wing had dripped some fuel on the tarmac, and somehow it had caught on fire. Fire right below fuel tanks.

Not a good thing.

After another half an hour or so, the pilot came into the terminal and announced, "If the passengers of flight 5678 will follow me into the lounge, cocktails are on the company."

Although I was underage, I was in uniform, so nobody was going to refuse me service, so I had several coctails at the expense of the airline. And duly fortified, we all got back on the same aircraft and went into the air.

Every time we hit an airpocket or cloud formation. we all went "Oh shit" but we made it to L.A. As I Left the plane and transversed the terminal "Sounds Of Silence" was playing.

I made my connecting flight, and made it home in time for the funeral.

But as the Greatful Dead put it "What a strange long trip it's been."