Last week I did a Los Angeles turn flight. On the flight home we started experiencing some turbulence due to unstable weather around the islands (sorry Carmen!).
There was a huge Hawaiian guy sitting right in front of my jumpseat. We were so close to each other that the tips of our shoes kept touching. Right when we were making our decent we hit some moderate turbulence and he started turning this weird shade of green. The seat belt sign was on, so we couldn’t get up. I was trapped.
ME: Ho Bradda, you okay? (how’s my pidgin? LOL!)
HIM: I think I going be sick.
ME: You can make it or what?
HIM: I no think so (reaching for the teeny tiny barf bag).
ME: (imagining projectile barf everywhere, especially in my direction) Okay, okay! Try wait! I’ll get you a bigger bag.
So I break a Federal Aviation Regulation and get up out of my jumpseat. Afterall, this is considered an emergency, right? I make it back just in time as this huge guy starts heaving. Yuck! Now the smell is starting to circulate and I can just see it all happening in slow motion. There is a chain reaction starting.
Luckily,we landed and the seat belt sign went off. People were making a mad dash to the lavatories. Some make it in time, some don’t. Some throw up all over the lavatory floor. That’s why I always say, “DON’T GO BAREFOOT ON THE AIRPLANE!”
I just love my job.
What about you? Do you have any interesting flying stories? I’d love to hear them!
- Don’t forget to visit my renter, Sunflower. She’s having a debate over which is better, IE or Firefox. Stop by and give her your personal opinion. Just click on her thumbnail in the sidebar. C’mon, I know you want to! Click! Click! Pretty please?
- By the way, I finally got around to randomly choosing 2 people for the Hawaiian Pictorial Calendars. They are The Ice Box and Exceedingly Mundane. Congratulations! Please email me with you mailing address and I’ll send them out asap.
11 Comments on “Turbulent Skies”
11:20 pm
Yeah - I won, I won, I won! Wow - I feel so special. I’ll send you an e-mail with my street address.
This story made me think about the time when I was the one hurling while on a redeye from here to Chicago — ugh. I felt horrible, but I’m sure my fellow passengers didn’t appreciate my actions, either. At least everything was contained in one barf bag.
** At least you kept it contained! That’s the important part . . . coming from someone who has to clean up that mess! LOL!
11:59 pm
lol oh yes I think that would qualify as an emergency. lol
1:23 am
That is just not pleasant. As much as I quite often wanted your job, at this point, listening to some of your stories (especially this one) makes me thankful I never took the job. Kudos to you for handling the incident(s).
** There really is more good than bad experiences. I just choose to post the bad ones! LOL!
1:57 am
The hubby and I boarded a Southwest flight out of Baltimore headed home. A woman started screaming that someone was in her seat. The F.A. came back and told her there were no assigned seats. She started screaming louder. The F.A. threatened to throw her off the plane.
The woman grabbed her coat and sat down in the aisle seat next to me and threw the coat over her head.
The flight was headed for either Vegas or Phoenix (my mind is unclear where we transferred for our flight to Portland, OR)
She did NOT remove that coat for the next until we landed. She wouldn’t acknowledge our desire to use the restroom. So, the people across the aisle from us helped us by extending their hands so we could pull up and walk on the arm rest and jump into the aisle. And then back the same way.
The people around were all very nice and shaking their heads in wonder.
What a weird flight it was.
** I can’t believe the FA didn’t make that lady move for you! You’re so nice. I would have made her get up each time I went to the restroom!
2:54 am
I am a chicken on take off/landing but so far I’ve never had the urge to hurl. I don’t know how you do it. I will never take my shoes off on a plane again. Ugh.
What’s pidgin? Is that a Hawaiian dialect?
::off to Google::
** It’s just the slang words that we use in Hawaii.
4:53 am
MMkay, and you wonder WHY I’ve never been on a plane? LOL I’d probably hyperventilate anyways!
4:58 am
I guess the story with the weird passenger was we were flying to Tampa from Denver (might have been TX…it was a while ago.) and this lady who is obviously petrified of flying is in the back galley with a flight attendant pleading for her to make the plane stop moving. I was just wondering why someone so afraid of flying was even on board. *sigh*
Then when we flew the first time to Korea the meal had two choices…the American meal and the Korean meal. The flight had about 95% Koreans on board…guess what kind of meal we got stuck with because we were nearly last. And it was Fish and we all got sick from it! So the next time we fly, I pack some food for us…just in case. We get a good meal and I have to throw out the food I packed because the US won’t allow us to bring in meat from a foreign country…even though the meat was US packaged lunchmeat purchased at the US base commissary.
Oh and you should see the very cute exercise videos they show on the Korean flights… seat exercises so you don’t develope blood clots from sitting for 14 hours.
** LOL! I would love to see that video! Does it work?
2:47 pm
Oh man, I can just picture it…it’s like a repeat of the Stand By Me scene of the vomit breggade (sp?). ROFL - - I totally would have broken the rules to get a bigger bag too!!!
Hugs,
Holly
Holly’s Corner
3:29 pm
Ooh, Oooh, a new calendar! I’m so excited! I sent you my mailing address too.
Thankfully, I have no horror stories about flying. I’ve flown very few times in my life, but each and every one of them was a quiet, uneventful flight.
Thank goodness!
** Lucky girl! I hope it stays that way! I’m sending out the calendar this morning. Congrats!
8:40 pm
You already know my plane story! :O) That must have been awful!
** Do you mean the time you FARTED? LOL! Oops, did I say that too loudly?
2:18 am
two puke stories in one day…
http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/confessions_of_a_pioneer_/2007/01/speaking_of_mik.html
E.N.J.O.Y
** You know I’m going to have to check out that story. Thanks for thinking of me!
(I'll take good care of it.)