Hi everyone:
You may have read my post last week about flying to Miami during Tropical Storm Fay. I was worried about my return flight, and whether or not I'd make it back or be delayed due to weather. Fortunately, I did get out of there the day I was supposed to, and weather wasn't really a problem. It was a little bumpy during take-off and the pilot warned us it would be. Once we headed north of Miami, the flight was fine.
I do have a few questions that I'd like to get Captain Tom or Steve's perspective on:
1) On my flight from ORD to Miami, we were at the gate getting ready to go. The Pilot said it would take a little time to get all the baggage on board and that we would be departing shortly. Then, I hear some strange sounds like they are trying to rev up the engine, but it was very loud. Someone on the plane (one of the passengers near me) said that it didn't sound so good. I look out my window (my seat was near the wing of a 757) and I see black smoke coming out of the side of the plane. At that point I panicked and felt very anxious. I thought there was something seriously wrong with the plane and wanted to get off. My heart was racing, started sweating and was wondering if the pilots knew about the black smoke. We took off, I was still upset (and flying alone), and then all was fine. Can anyone tell me what this might have been? Were they trying to clean out the engines or something procedural?
2) On my return trip, I was on the same plane--a 757. We were 1 hour delayed because there was a concern that not all passengers on the plane were accounted for. They actually had to open up the cabin after the doors were all shut and bring gate agents on board to check everyone. We all had to turn in our boarding passes. After 1 hour, the flight attendants got on the speaker announced that they figured out the problem and blamed it on a "computer glitch". This was very strange. What kind of computer glitch? My father was checking my flight from home because of the weather in Miami, and americanairlines.com said that we were delayed due to weather, which was absolutely not true.
Your perspective on this would be very helpful! I was a nervous wreck on both of these flights due to these incidents.
You may have read my post last week about flying to Miami during Tropical Storm Fay. I was worried about my return flight, and whether or not I'd make it back or be delayed due to weather. Fortunately, I did get out of there the day I was supposed to, and weather wasn't really a problem. It was a little bumpy during take-off and the pilot warned us it would be. Once we headed north of Miami, the flight was fine.
I do have a few questions that I'd like to get Captain Tom or Steve's perspective on:
1) On my flight from ORD to Miami, we were at the gate getting ready to go. The Pilot said it would take a little time to get all the baggage on board and that we would be departing shortly. Then, I hear some strange sounds like they are trying to rev up the engine, but it was very loud. Someone on the plane (one of the passengers near me) said that it didn't sound so good. I look out my window (my seat was near the wing of a 757) and I see black smoke coming out of the side of the plane. At that point I panicked and felt very anxious. I thought there was something seriously wrong with the plane and wanted to get off. My heart was racing, started sweating and was wondering if the pilots knew about the black smoke. We took off, I was still upset (and flying alone), and then all was fine. Can anyone tell me what this might have been? Were they trying to clean out the engines or something procedural?
2) On my return trip, I was on the same plane--a 757. We were 1 hour delayed because there was a concern that not all passengers on the plane were accounted for. They actually had to open up the cabin after the doors were all shut and bring gate agents on board to check everyone. We all had to turn in our boarding passes. After 1 hour, the flight attendants got on the speaker announced that they figured out the problem and blamed it on a "computer glitch". This was very strange. What kind of computer glitch? My father was checking my flight from home because of the weather in Miami, and americanairlines.com said that we were delayed due to weather, which was absolutely not true.
Your perspective on this would be very helpful! I was a nervous wreck on both of these flights due to these incidents.



