During my last trip to Florida, the plane I was on had engine failure. Obviously, everything worked out since I am here writing this blog. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting experience for me. After leaving from Syracuse, I changed planes in Detroit for the remainder of my journey to Ft. Lauderdale. We took off on time and nothing remarkable happened. After 15 minutes in the air, my eyes got itchy and throat was scratchy, so I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something. Of course, I took a dose of my favorite allergies remedy ~ Allergies Begone! and the symptoms subsided quickly. Then I started to smell a burnt-plastic odor, which was soon followed by the cabin filling with smoke. The lights went on and the flight attendant had a fire extinguisher and was looking for the source of the smoke. Within a moment, the captain announced that we were heading back to Detroit. Apparently, the left engine failed and leaked oil into the air conditioner system ~ not a good thing. Once they realized this, they shut off the air conditioner system and the smoke dissipated quickly ~ a good thing.

As we started to land, people on the plane noticed it did not look anything like Detroit and with their handy smart phones they quickly found out that we were in Toledo, OH. Apparently, the captain put out a mayday and Toledo was the closest airport available to handle our plane with 225 passengers. We landed safely and disembarked the plane into what was obviously an unused part of the airport. We were told that a rescue plane was being sent to take us to Florida. They brought out the refreshment cart and served drinks and snacks while we waited. I got a double Jack Daniels; I assumed the wait would be considerable.

Considering we had an emergency landing, it went very smoothly, perfect landing ~ no bumps. There was no major excitement except for the plane being surrounded by emergency vehicles when we touched the ground. For the first hour or so, all of the passengers seemed very pleasant and chatty. Some looked up the event online and realized there was breaking news about our situation on local TV. There were a bunch of tweets and even a video of the landing. I found it amusing to realize that all of it had to come from one of my fellow passengers ~ wow ~ social media! After about an hour, a Delta representative showed up (Delta doesn’t fly into Toledo so the fellow drove from Detroit to Toledo to assist us) and announced that they located a rescue plane and it would be leaving Detroit shortly. I have to say I was impressed, they found an entire plane to take all of us to Florida that same night. But not everyone felt that way. That is when the people began to bitch about waiting. They formed little bitching groups throughout the gate. After about an hour or so more, the plane arrived, it was about 11:30pm. They announced that the plane had arrived but we needed to wait a bit more until a new crew arrived.  This did not make the bitchy people happy and simply fueled their complaints. At that point, I had had enough of their grumbling. It did not help the situation; it only made it more unpleasant. It served no one.

So I pointed out a couple of things:

1. One of the engine’s on plane we were on failed ~ we landed safely with no problems. Some planes crash and people do die when engines fail. We are alive.
2. They found an entire plane to get all of us to our destination.
3. They want a fresh (awake) crew to fly us, not one that has been flying all day long.
4. They provided a warm, terminal with wifi and TV along with refreshments while we waited.

They all agreed (they had no choice, it was the truth) but…nonetheless continued to bitch. I relocated myself to an area where I was surrounded by more pleasant people ~ aka people with a positive attitude. And thanks goodness there were more people that were okay with this minor glitch in their trip, even the ones that were going to Florida for just a long weekend. They accepted that things like this happen. We chatted, joked, laughed and got to know it each other. It was definitely a far better way to pass the time than simply bitching. By midnight, we boarded the rescue plane and were off to Ft. Lauderdale, again. We landed safely and I was in bed by 5:00am.  The event only delayed my arrival six hours, not bad for an emergency landing. I’ve slept in airports due to fog.

After flying annually, several times a year for almost 50 years, for the first time in my life the plane I was on had engine failure. I think of myself as very fortunate and grateful that I know it. I feel bad for those complainers; they really have no idea how good they have it.