UPDATED: So, let me start by saying that I fly a good bit. usually twice a week on southwest. The planes seem to be getting a little long in the tooth, but I love the folks working for the airline. They are by far the best for local airline travel.
Anyway, so I'm flying back to SNA for OAK which is a short 1hr flight. I'm watching TV or something on my phone and we start to make our decent coming in from the NE. About 7 miles out as the pilot start to deploy flaps...BANG....
All i felt was little bump like turbulence. Nothing to big...then a full throttle up and climb. we come around the ocean side...
I'm thinking...???WTF...Did he miss approach? Did we get routed to land from the SW?
We keep turning and flying very high (for a landing) and I'm like okay, something is not right.
I text my buddy on the flight who's a few rows up and he says one of the flaps is broke and we need to land at LAX...?? I thought he was joking...Then I looked out the window and saw downtown LA...and though, oh, that's great...broken wing and we are landing in LA.
It's at that moment the real fear set in.
It was Thursday...5:00...I haven't seen my family all week...and now I'll have to drive from LAX to SNA...I checked google maps for traffic and it looked like the entire city was bleeding. all roads were dark red...
Oh GOD NO.
In the end we were brought in ahead of the other planes and landed with a fire truck escort. No issues at all. They even brought up a new plane and sent us on our way in less than an hour.
So I live to fly another day.
UPDATE: Just logged into email this morning and saw a note from the "proactive customer communications manager" at Southwest. She apologized for the issue with the flight and passed along a $100 voucher for a future flight. Now that's pretty nice. I've been delayed a lot with no voucher and wasn't expecting one this time.
Anyway, so I'm flying back to SNA for OAK which is a short 1hr flight. I'm watching TV or something on my phone and we start to make our decent coming in from the NE. About 7 miles out as the pilot start to deploy flaps...BANG....
All i felt was little bump like turbulence. Nothing to big...then a full throttle up and climb. we come around the ocean side...
I'm thinking...???WTF...Did he miss approach? Did we get routed to land from the SW?
We keep turning and flying very high (for a landing) and I'm like okay, something is not right.
I text my buddy on the flight who's a few rows up and he says one of the flaps is broke and we need to land at LAX...?? I thought he was joking...Then I looked out the window and saw downtown LA...and though, oh, that's great...broken wing and we are landing in LA.
It's at that moment the real fear set in.
It was Thursday...5:00...I haven't seen my family all week...and now I'll have to drive from LAX to SNA...I checked google maps for traffic and it looked like the entire city was bleeding. all roads were dark red...
Oh GOD NO.
In the end we were brought in ahead of the other planes and landed with a fire truck escort. No issues at all. They even brought up a new plane and sent us on our way in less than an hour.
So I live to fly another day.
UPDATE: Just logged into email this morning and saw a note from the "proactive customer communications manager" at Southwest. She apologized for the issue with the flight and passed along a $100 voucher for a future flight. Now that's pretty nice. I've been delayed a lot with no voucher and wasn't expecting one this time.
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