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My name's compassion…

da da ding ding, ta da ding ding –

That was the moment that it happened. The instant the oxygen masks fell from their safe haven above and down into the world of the passengers of United flight 578 leaving New Orleans. Most of us just looked at them, then each other. I remember glancing up at the first class passengers and noticing they were indeed putting theirs on. I wondered what was wrong with the masks that would make them fall out of their compartments. As the jet took a hard turn realization set in that it was the plane and not the masks that had a malfunction. I yanked the sting to release the masks and reluctantly placed mine over my head and mouth. My thoughts of composition of a new song were replaced by memories of Brad Pitt in the movie Fight Club… the scene replays where brad Pitt first shows up and explains why all the people look so happy on the crashing plane-oxygen. I took a big breathe in, watching the bag not fully inflate, damn I always wondered about that.

Looking around the lady next to me had also put her head between her legs, I was beginning to get anxious. Then as if it had not been five minutes since the odd occurrence of the masks dropping down a nervous voice came on the intercom that I recognized as the flight attendant. "Please stay down, keep your masks on, put your head between your legs and stay down." The voice adamantly said stay down many more times… that was when the half dozen babies on the plane erupted almost in unison. My heart went out to those parents, what must they be thinking. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have experienced a loss of cabin pressure and a… mechanical problem. Please keep your oxygen masks on and your heads down." Said the captain. It was so past time to give instructions, I lifted my head to see it wasn't only the babies that were crying- there were adults in tears as well. It set the mood very well.

The lady next to me grabbed her camera and snapped a few pictures. Then she looked at me and mouthed the words "Do you smell smoke?" I nodded my head, I did indeed. The electrical issues were obviously an electrical fire. I heard someone yell out and glanced back again, a woman with a baby who couldn't have been more than a few weeks old held it close to her as tears streamed down her face…her bible was in her other hand. An ex co-workers words passed through my mind… it's not like they can pull over and check out what the problem is. My stomach rolled. The pilot came on and said we would be returning to New Orleans airport for an emergency landing. I was devastated to realize we would be flying the massive craft at an altitude of less than 18,000 right over lake pontchartrain. We could, however, take off our oxygen masks if we felt comfortable doing so, he instructed. Most did, but the crying continued.

I thought of the last things I had said to each person I love, I knew I was not dying on this day but where I would have left things if I had. What would their last memories had been if that would have been my day. I was interrupted in thought by the lady next to me. She started to small talk, it was as if we talked about the most insignificant things then the immensity of the situation will be erased. We were flying so low- everything was so close and we were going so slow. It was hard to check up with her conversations.

Anxious looks were on every face, most of the babies had fallen asleep from exhaustion at this point. The air was thick enough to cut. As we approached lake pontchartrain  we were low enough to clearly see the cars on the bridge over the river before the lake. I remember the lake looked like the edge of the earth. I knew in my soul it was not my time- that did not stop my heart from racing and my breathe from getting caught in my throat.

What seemed an eternity later we landed to a big applause of the passengers. We were instructed that someone would meet us at the gate when we went inside for redirect instructions… most of us had missed our connections in Chicago.

I walked off the plane in a crowd of emotion with the other passengers to an empty counter, and despair. "Thanks for your concern" I thought. It took a full fifteen minutes for someone to show up, only to say she needed fifteen more minutes to address us and not to approach her. I was appalled. At her expiry minute she came back on the intercom to tell us our flight was cancelled, a collective 'no kidding' was heard from the excitable crowd, and she told us to go get our bags from baggage claim and go back through ticketing. I won't go into the rest of the days details, coming so close to death or at least having the perception of it should make the insensitivity meaningless. I just wish that people who take responsibility for trying to take your life would take just as much time and effort towards apologizing for the act of doing it. This may be a lesson I never learn.