UH-OH

On a flight to Portland the other day, we had a 'cabin advisory'. If you are not a pilot or a flight attendant, this probably doesnt mean a whole lot to you. but basically, it's one step down from an evacuation. here's the story.

about an hour into the flight, the pilots need a restroom break. due to security policies following 9/11, there is now a two person cockpit rule. when one of the pilots has to use the bathroom, a flight attendant must sit in the cockpit while they are gone.

so the first officer is in the bathroom and im sitting in the cockpit talking to the captain. and he asks what we are doing when we get to portland and i reply that we are all turning around and coming back. he replies "with this plane?"
and i say, "i think there's a plane change. I'm not sure."
to this he says "well, this plane isnt going to be going anywhere."
"Huh?"
He points to a light blinking above his head and says nothing.
"Is that bad?" I ask with confusion.
He remains silent for about 5 seconds and replies, "It's not good."

Hmmmm. so apparently one of the hydraulic pumps has failed on the left side of the aircraft and we are now flying with a backup system. but, we are still able to fly. so no worries.

about another hour into the flight, the captain calls the head flight attendant into the cockpit so they can "have a talk."

She returns to tell me we are now in a "cabin advisory"- meaning we do not have to make an emergency landing and we do not have to prep the cabin for an evacuation, but we as flight attendants must be prepared for a rough landing and an unplanned evacuation. oh ya- and we are now leaking hydraulic fluid and our landing gear's wheels will not turn. awesome.

throughout the rest of the flight we played it cool to the passengers. the whole time i wondered if we'd have to evacuate when we landed. i knew this wasnt a life and death situation or anything- the worst that would happen is that we'd evacuate the plane- but it kept making me think about how it would feel if we had just been told that we were going to crash or something. like- it would happen just as out of the blue. one second you're standing there in the galley drinking orange juice and talking about your crummy last trip, and the next second you find out you're going to be crashing. it's surreal, how quickly things can change. and it made me realize that it really can happen at anytime.

just before landing, the captain made an announcement to passengers that we had a problem with the plane and we may experience a rough landing. that emergency vehicles will be there when we land. some passengers were praying and really freaking out. i sat in my jumpseat next to the purser and for the very first time since i started flying, we didnt say a word to each other during landing. I kept going over the evacuation commands over and over in my head. where the manual inflation handle was on my door. where i would protect myself.

of course, we didnt have to evacuate. he made a beautiful landing. emergency vehicles were there but they didnt have to do anything. we had to be towed in to the gate because our wheels didnt turn.

so that was my exciting day at work.

other interesting (according to me) tidbits:

there's a new homeless man at my subway station. i know he's homeless because of the game of chess he was playing against himself.

Emily's bridal shower was yesterday, reminding me once again what a loser i am and that i really am never marrying. (it was very beautiful though. and scuba steve really is the perfect man for my emily).

went on a bike ride with my mom today along Lake Shore Drive downtown. started down by soldier field and went all the way past navy pier. the weather was absolutely beautiful. i cant wait until it gets really hot so i can start going to the beach over there.


and that's all.