Thursday, August 4

There's just no pleasing some people.

By now I'm sure everyone's heard about the crash of the Air France jetliner in Toronto in which the plane went skidding off the runway and down into a ravine and burst into flames. Somehow all 309 people on board managed to get the hell out of the plane with their lives, which, if not a miracle, still qualifies as a pretty momentous achievement.

So I couldn't help but single out this quote from one of the passengers . . .

"It happened so quickly; it was a little bit like being in a movie," said Gwen Dunlop of Toronto, who was returning from a vacation in France.

. . .

"One of the hostesses said, `You can calm down, it's OK,' and yet the plane was on fire and smoke was pouring in," Dunlop told The AP. "I don't like to criticize, but the staff did not seem helpful or prepared."


Lady, I don't like to criticize either -- well, no, clearly I love to do that -- but if all 309 people managed to make it out of the burning hulk of an Airbus A340 alive, then I'd say yeah, the staff were apparently both helpful and prepared. And though it may have seemed incongruous for the flight attendant to say "You can calm down, it's OK," that was probably much more appropriate and helpful in the long run than saying "Everybody panic, we're all gonna diiiiie!!!!"

Somehow I can just picture this woman being miffed because one of the flight attendants wouldn't help her yank her overstuffed Prada bag out of the overhead compartment before they led her to the emergency exit. And then, of course, the inflatable emergency ramp was uncomfortable and scratchy and gave her a run in her stocking, and then when she went back for her shoes they were covered with that flame-retardant foam the fire crew was using so of course they were ruined . . .

OK, sorry, I'm really done now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What else would you expect from a liberal Canadian frog?

No quarter, this one's on the house.

Greg said...

Jenny,
I agree. People are too critical of airline staff, and don't realize the training and re-training that they do. I also think that (except for the fact they crashed in the first place) the flight crew (attendants and pilots) did a hell of a job to get everyone out alive. That's the difference between Air France going bankrupt, and Air France "open for business".

You're funny....I particularly liked the "overstuffed Prada bag" line...