I was scared
December 15th, 2006 by ktula
I was scared. I wasn’t scared shitless (屁滚尿流) but i was scared. Tonight was the first time in the many years that i have been flying that i was actually worried about the landing.
I already knew before getting on the flight from Phoenix to Seattle that it was going to be really windy in Seattle. The weather forecast was calling for wind up to 90 miles per hour. In fact, the inbound flight was actually delayed by more than one and a half hours because of the windy condition in Seattle. By the time everyone boarded the plane, the captain announced that Sea-Tac airport had put a hold on all the inbound flights to Seattle. So i sat in the plane for an hour before it finally took off.
As the plane got closer to Seattle, i could feel the plane going up and down, like a roller coaster, except for the fact that there was no track to hold the plane down. I knew the damages caused by the wind storm was probably significant because when i looked out of the window, i noticed that half of the normally brightly lighted Evergreen floating bridge (highway 520) was completely dark. As the plane made its final approach to the airport, it got worse. The plane was bouncing up and down, left and right, like a model airplane in the hand of a 5-year old child. The pilots were desperately trying to align the plane with the runway. The woman next to me was holding on dearly to her daughter’s hand. I had both of my hands grabbing onto my thighs.
When the plane finally landed safely on the runway, most of the passengers broke into cheers. “Wow”. That was the first word out of the lead flight attendant’s mouth when the plane landed. This is the second time that i have witnessed passengers applauding after the plane has landed. The other time was when my flight landed in Honolulu - i was totally clueless as of why people were cheering.
When my flight landed at Sea-Tac, the wind was gusting at more than 50 MPH.
Even my ride home from the airport was not uneventful. A portion of West Marginal Way was completed flooded. The police blocked off the flooded area and i could see a half-submerged vehicle with water reaching as high as the windows. The power went out completely for people living along SW Avalon Way.
As i am writing this in my bedroom facing the Puget Sound, i can see flashes around the darkened neighborhood west of my house. Probably trees falling onto powerlines. The light fixtures in my house are blinking and i can hear the UPS for my webserver beeping ever so often.
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