I was in San Antonio this last week. On the flight home, the plane out of San Antonio (SAT) turned around and headed back to the airport. Us passengers didn't notice anything until the landing gear came down, only 10 mins after it had been raised. If we'd been paying attention, we might have noticed that we didn't get above about 10,000 feet. But I was deeply engrossed in a book.
We didn't know what the deal was, the pilots and cabin crew didn't announce anything. After landing, and being escorted back to the gate by fire trucks and police cars, they finally told us what the deal was. A false fire alarm on the auxiliary power unit (APU).
They presented it to the passengers as a "false alarm indicator here in the cockpit of a fire in the APU". Now, looking back at it, I would guess the pilots didn't know if the plane was really on fire or not while we were in the air. They probably didn't know one way or another until we landed, and the firemen told them there was no smoke or fire shooting out of the back of the plane. The captain declared an emergency with air traffic control, and we turned around and went back fast. The cabin crew was notified to look for smoke, and if they had seen or smelled any, we'd have left the plane via the slides on a taxiway next to the runway instead of taxiing all the way back to the gate.
The only thing cooler than being on an airplane that might have been on fire, is being on an airplane that wasn't on fire.
This adventure lead to the second exciting experience of the trip home. The TSA. Because the flight would not be leaving SAT until the problem with the fire sensor was fixed, I would miss my connection and end up stuck in Denver. So United put me on Midwest thru Kansas City to get back to NYC. But because I had changed airlines, I got the dreaded 4S on my ticket unless I could show Midwest my ticket and boarding pass from United. I couldn't do that, because United took it when they boarded the doomed flight to Denver.
The dreaded "4S" is when the airline prints "SSSS" on your ticket. It means that in addition to the stuff you normally get going thru the security checkpoint, you get the full pat-down no matter what. So Midwest called the TSA and they send someone down. And he asked me three times how I got thru the security gate. For a second, I wasn't sure they were going to let me fly.
They did though. Midwest held the plane up by a couple of minutes for me. The gate agent walked down the jetway with me, and they closed the door practically on me, to get the flight out on time.
The only other bummer on the flight is that because of the delay, I finished the only book I had with me 10 minutes into the flight to MCI.
Posted by Wookie at April 4, 2008 10:04 PM