To set the scene: it is April 2011 and I am going on vacation with my family to Hawaii. It was my immediate family, my aunt, my uncle, and my cousin who is also my age. I am nine years old, turning ten on this trip. I’d like to mention this is my first time ever getting on a plane. I was so excited to go on vacation, especially to Hawaii. I knew that it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip even though I was still so young. The first flight was to Phoenix, Arizona and then the second flight was from Arizona to Maui. I couldn’t tell you what happened on the first flight, and that’s a good thing. It was probably a normal flight with little inconvenience or none at all. The flight took six hours from Philadelphia to Phoenix. Once we got to Arizona it was now time for our second flight…this is the flight I do indeed remember every second of.
The flight from Arizona to Maui is seven hours. Let’s keep that in mind, shall we? I am now on my second flight of the day, eating M&M’s, and playing Mario Kart on my DS. It was a long flight, especially after being on one previously. I did not mind being on the plane, I didn’t get anxious flying, I was just excited to miss school and be in Hawaii. We have one more hour to go, we will be in Maui in one hour… repeat…ONE HOUR. All of a sudden the plane makes a very drastic 180-degree turn. Everyone felt the drastic change of direction and became very worried. Now we hear the pilot make an announcement. I can’t quote him on what he said but I can put it into my own words. It went something like this, “Hey everybody I hope everyone is having an amazing flight. Turns out our backup engine broke and we do not have a backup engine anymore. We will be turning the flight around back to Arizona.” Okay… WHY.
We had one more hour of a flight left and they wanted to fly seven hours back with no backup engine over the Pacific Ocean. They decided to turn the plane around instead of continuing the flight because they did not want the broken plane to be stuck in Hawaii. I am guessing this is regulation when this happens. Why would we want to be over the Pacific Ocean for seven hours straight back to Arizona with no backup engine? If something happens to the regular engine we are all dead. No one was happy. Everyone began to panic. Half of the adults on the plane were drunk, maybe because they thought they’d be in paradise soon or flight anxiety or maybe it was just all the rich alcoholics. Instead of being in paradise in one hour, they began to scream and fight with every stewardess they saw. Many people even tried rushing the cockpit and trying to ask the pilot to continue the flight. Everyone was scared because there were another seven hours on this plane that felt like it was going to drop out of the sky at any second.
Every child on the plane was throwing up and crying. I thought I was not going to see my 10th birthday. I was okay though because I had my DS and my iPod had Ke$ha downloaded.
I honestly did not care if we died. I don’t know why but I felt at peace knowing that day was my last day. Seven hours later, my plane was back in Arizona and now it is time for my 4th long plane ride of the day. They gave up complimentary eye masks to make up for the horrible past couple of hours. As soon as we got onto the plane we all passed out and woke up in Hawaii. A travel day that was supposed to be 13 hours turned into two travel days encompassing 26 hours. I thought my final destination was going to be the Pacific Ocean.
Here is me after the horrific experience:)
