“The Day My Plane Troubles Became Entertainment”
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 07.23.05 | 12:37 PM ET
Picture this: It’s the middle of your Southwest flight out of Chicago, and the captain’s voice comes over the intercom. He says he’s returning to the airport. The problem lies with the control stick. It’s shaking violently, a sign universally acknowledged by pilots that the plane may stall. You grip the armrests. Your heart races.
When the plane thankfully lands safely at Midway, four people enter through the jetway. One of them holds a television camera. Another hands you a release-permission form. Smile. You’re about to be filmed by the crew for A&E’s televison program Airline. This actually happened recently to Bob Greene, and it left him wondering about “reality, that parallel but separate new state.” Greene’s excellent piece about the incident runs today in the Op-Ed section of The New York Times. “For some passengers, the arrival of the reality-show crew seemed welcome, almost a sign of home, and they eagerly gave interviews, even before the mechanics had determined whether we were airworthy,” he writes. “Later I spoke with the ‘Airline’ field producer, who told me that we had appeared ‘anxious and hot.’ She couldn’t say whether the flight would make it onto the broadcast - she thought the video was good, but it lacked certain elements that would have made it a sure thing: ‘Someone having a panic attack, or someone angry about being late for a business meeting, or a couple missing their wedding day.’”
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
