Travel Drama

I'm leaving tomorrow for Key West. I'm really looking forward to the trip and to sun and warm weather. However, I have a raging panic attack that's been here for the last three days. I haven't always been a good flyer. Planes used to scare the crap out of me. In 2007 I was forced to overcome my fear when my job required travel to Texas and Germany and a family trip to Jamaica all occurred within a little over one month.

Since then I have enjoyed travel and flying. Until March of this year. I went on a cruise for my birthday. The cruise itself was fine. The flight home was what terrifying. The east coast was being hammered by storms the day we flew home. In the airport, we sat and watched as flight after flight was delayed. Our flight was not.

The start of the flight home was great, rather unremarkable. But as we got closer to LaGuardia airport we hit terrible turbulence. The plane was shaken left, right, up and down. The winds were so strong that you could feel the plane being pushed backwards. We circled the airport for what felt like an eternity (at least an hour) in this awful turbulence. The plane sounded like it was going to come apart at the scenes. People were getting sick, screaming and crying. I turned my phone and texted Eddie and said that I thought we were going to crash and that I loved him.

The pilot attempted to land several times, we heard the landing gear come down but we saw nothing but clouds and fog out the window. Not even the blink of the runway lights. LaGuardia kept giving the clear for us to land (we had an amazing flight crew who kept us up-to-date on what was going on.) After being pushed back on the last attempt to land, the pilot came over the speaker system and told us that despite LaGuardia's insistence that we land he was taking us to Philly International (which was closer to home for me than NYC, but was not an option as the airline we flew did not have a gate at PHL.)

Our crew was wonderful. But the stress of our experience caused one flight attendant to have a heart attack. One of the girls I was traveling with passed out from a panic attack brought on by extreme pressure from the experience. They made the call over the system asking for all doctors and nurses to report to the back of the plane. An off-duty attendant who was flying home on the airline took over her duties. Helped find alternate transportation, got everyone free drinks and did what he could to calm everyone down.

I thought I was going to die. It wasn't until we touched down on the tarmac at the airport that I felt relieved. And it wasn't until Eddie got home (he was in NYC waiting to pick us up so he had to drive back to our house while my father-in-law picked me up at the police station in the Philly airport) that it hit me exactly how terrified I was. All I said for a half-an-hour, between the sobs, was 'I never thought I was going to see you again.'

I know that the experience was unique and that it was a result of the weather and not the very capable flight crew. There were other flights that had similar issues and all airports in or around New York were redirected. I know that tomorrow, when I get on the plane that I'll have a safe journey. I know that. That flight should not be what I base all future travel on. So tomorrow, I'll just remind myself that I'm going to have a wonderful vacation with my family and that everything is going to be just fine.