Unfortunately my story did not end in the Denver airport. I ended up having an aisle seat much to my dismay since I like to look out the window to see how fast the ground is coming at me. We took off and within seconds the plane is bucking and weaving. The back of the plane keeps kicking out independent of the front of the plane. I have gone into all out tense mode. I think I hold my body so tight during these instances that it is probably the equivalent of doing 200+ crunches. No one around me though seems to be having a tough time of it. They must be much more seasoned mountain travellers than I, but by this point I have all but convinced myself that this bumping and jiving is not all attributed to a few peaks in mother earth.
After about 20 minutes things start to calm down and the captain comes on the speaker and although he is a low talker I do make out he is turning off the seat belt sign for a time. I take this as a good sign and start to relax.
About 15 minutes pass before the real fun begins. This damn plane is acting more like a teacup ride at an amusement park than the safest mode of travel! I keep trying to look past the two women next to me to get a real feel of what is going on outside but it is hard since the lady next to the window has pulled the shade down some to get some shut eye! Apparently this lady is not aware of our dire situation! Things are getting more and more rocky as the moments pass and then it happened..... a three second free fall. Yes folks, a free fall. People screamed!! Not me, no I was so hunkered down in the all muscles on alert pose I had no energy left to scream. I grabbed the lady sitting next to me who grabbed me back, first time for everything... someone grabbing me back, and then she turned and looked at me and said, "oh my gosh that was scary!" Uhh yeah.. scary is an understatement, people screamed!! The low talking pilot got on the PA and gave a short chuckle and said, "Welcome to Omaha!" I personally was glad he was still laughing seeing that would hopefully mean he hadn't lost all control.
The same I don't think could be said for the landing. We came in like our pants were on fire and basically hit with our back wheels so hard that a group of guys behind me dropped multiple "holy sh**s", not to mention that the angle of the plane looked like one that should be taking off not landing. The front was still at such an incline that it was no where near touching down. The pilot slammed on all the devices he had to slow this baby down which caused the front to drop to the cement like a ton of bricks. The pilot had to have been jostled by the severe impact... but he was able to slow us down before the end of the runway and jerk us over to the gate. And I mean jerk... the guy didn't know how to easily step on the brake so we are being whip lashed every time this guy wants to slow down!
I seriously lost 15 years of my life in 30 minutes. I thanked the pilot for not killing us when I was exiting the death craft.
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