Aug 14, 2008 16:55
I've been home from Europe for a few days. I am still all off in my sleeping and eating. Jet Lag is a bitch.
We got home a day later than expected due to a mechanical issue that came up with the flight while we were IN THE AIR. We had taken off from Malpensa in Milan and were reaching cruising altitude when one of the smoke detectors starts going off in the bathroom. I wasn't initially concerned as the smoke detectors in my house go off when someone takes a shower so no big, right? But I notice the flight attendants looking a bit worried. They got on the phone, called each other, ran up and down the aisle, fanned at the detector and then, did what I do when the thing just won't stop, took out the battery. Then I notice the plane banking and they make the announcement that they are turning around "We are sure that there is no problem, but we'd rather err on the side of caution." we are told. Then they say "And again, we are sure that there is really nothing wrong but we'd like for you to prepare for emergency landing procedures, so if you'll get out the card in your seat pocket, we'll go over what to do. But we just want to remind you, THIS IS ONLY A PRECAUTION. Really Everything is juuust fiiine." And guess who is sitting in the emergency exit row and has all kinds of special duties should we need to do an emergency evacuation!?! So, even thought they gave us a basic briefing prior to take off, which I barely paid attention to as I was so focused on all the leg room I was going to have for my 10 hour flight home (Score!) they ran to us and gave us another refresher. Apparently, after landing, the flight attendant would give us the signal to pull off the door (You can lift 50lbs, right?), lay it on the seat and and "Assess the scene". As the door opened, we'd hear a loud noise as the slide inflates. If the slide does not inflate, find the chord in the door cavity and pull it. If there was and I quote "Fire, Rising Water, or Impenetrable Smoke" (we are all going to die?) we are to call out "Bad Exit" and direct everyone to wherever a good exit was. If it was good, assign two people to go down first and then help others at the bottom of the slide. And stay calm. Yeah, m'kay.
So, the plane is descending, and of course, every dip and bobble is heightened in my mind so that I am sure that we are going into freefall. And then the flight attendants start calling out "Assume emergency crash position! Heads low! LOW! LOW! LOW!" And we put our hands on the seat ahead of us crossed and put our heads down. And my heart was pounding in my head and I was sure that pieces of the plane were pulling off and we were in flames. And even though the flight attendants were still yelling "LOW! GET LOW! STAY LOW!" (can someone tell me how that would keep us alive) I turned my head and peeked out the window and could see that we were not engulfed in flames, we still had wings and while the landing didn't sound too hot, we were all alive. And then we were stopped and I bust into tears and I looked around the beautiful Italian woman in front of me is laughing and smiling and was clearly totally unfazed. And Jeff was just staring at me to see if I was going to totally lose it. But I pulled it together cuz I wanted the flight attendants to feel confidant that I could have pulled off the duties of the Emergency Exit Row Evacuation Leader, if needed.
So, we lived. They deplaned us and told it was going to be an hour and then two, then 5 and then they sent us all to a hotel. We left the next day at 1. We barely made our connection. We got back Monday night at 11pm. I had to go to work on Tuesday at 11am. I started my new job. It is so far so good.
We had an amazing trip and took tons of pics and I'll write about the good stuff once I am no longer going to bed at 8pm and waking up at 5am.
Grazie. Gracias. Prego. Ciao.