Jan 30
What Would It Take To Get You Back on a Plane?
Posted by editor at 12:47 pm in decline of civilization
Let’s say you were a passenger on U.S. Airways flight 1549 that crash landed in the Hudson. Pretend for a moment. You were probably terrified. You probably thought you were going to die. You ended up in some very cold water after standing on the plane in the most surreal moment of your life.
Now you’ve received $5000 for your lost luggage, which seems generous for luggage (unless of course you had a suitcase full of expensive clothes). You were also refunded the price of your ticket. Now what exactly would it take to get you back on the plane? A year’s worth of upgrades? That’s pretty laughable. Why not splurge for a lifetime of upgrades, U.S. Airways?
January 30th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Not much, though it will probably be on another airline. These airplanes are generally safe and the pilots are expertly trained. Look at the record, there is a better chance to be struck by lightening while being eaten by a shark then there is to be injured during a airplane incident in the USA.
January 30th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Xanax.
January 30th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I would figure that such occurrences are extremely rare and that I had just had more than my fair share of them so I would not hesitate to get back on a plane again. At least that is what I believe now not having actually gone through that experience but having taken plenty of “less than perfect” flights in the past and even piloting an “obsolete” WWII vintage glider in my youth.
January 30th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
You guys are far more rational than I would be. I’m not sure I could be that rational after standing in the Hudson…though cost-wise, it seems to me as U.S. Airways CEO, I might as well splurge for the life time of benefits to survivors, especially since few will use them….
January 30th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
The $5k is for luggage and other expenses.
I honestly don’t see the big deal. The airline is being reasonably nice about this. This was an act of god, handled about as well as it could have been, based on the best available information we have.
Let me put another scenario out: someone is walking to their car on a clear day in a business’s parking lot, and gets hit by a bolt from the blue. The business has a fantastically well-trained emergency response staff, they immediately start first aid, they get the fastest response out of the fire department and ambulance that’s achievable, and the person survives and fully recovers. The business is really nice and picks up the medical expenses. Is that victim suddenly entitled to a lifetime supply of the business’s product?
January 30th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I imagine I could get back in a plane after that- I’ve been in a couple pretty bad car crashes, and I got back in a car.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I just think that as good PR a nice lifetime benefit (that few will probably use) would go a long way. It’s not enough to get me on a plane, but it would discourage people from suing you too. Good will, and all that good stuff.
January 30th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I don’t like flying at all. I managed to go seven years without bording a plane and would have gone longer if I could have. If something like this happened to me, I doubt I would ever get back on a plane. Flying is always a last resort to me ;-)!
January 31st, 2009 at 7:30 am
Duct tape, Xanax, free booze, free cookies, and the world’s most awesome theme park as my destination.
January 31st, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Honestly, I’m pretty stoic about such things, and long ago accepted that eventually I was going to die when it was my time. And of course I’d fly again.
That being said, I’d take as much free crap as I could possibly get if I’d been through that ordeal.
January 31st, 2009 at 5:14 pm
UM, how about the need to get home? The passengers of Flight 1549 that were not injured, by and large, took later flights, many that same day, on USAir.
Whether the geese were and act of God or not, the ditching was a human miracle. — that the pilot was so incredibly prepared to handle and emergency, that he had a frigging glider’s license, which his plane had become, and that he was able to discern between the “safe” course of action (try to take it to the nearest runway, which is what the control tower urged him to do or do that thing his gut told him to.) I hate flying, but when its the only way home from Div School, I board, and realize every time that its a miracle.