It was a sweaty summer day in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport and the flight crew was trying their best to keep cool as the plane was filling with passengers. Jen was greeting while Neil and Mary were dealing with luggage and seating issues in the back. Jen was trying her best to stay alert and focused, but her natural cheeriness was pretty well worn out after the first half of the third leg. They were starting the fourth and final leg of the day.
“Good afternoon… hello…hello… hello, welcome aboard… hello.”
A man came down the jet bridge with a yellow lab wearing a “Don’t Pet Me. I’m Working” harness. The man wore thick sunglasses and a hat pulled low over his forehead.
“That’s a pretty dog,” Jen said.
“Is he?” the man asked. “I wouldn’t know.”
“Oh,” Jen said embarrassed. “Sorry.”
“Can you help me find my seat? He’s pretty good with numbers,” the man said lifting the dog’s harness, “but he’s having some trouble with the alphabet.”
Thirty minutes into the hour and a half flight the flight attendants were in the aisle with their carts doing a beverage service. The captain’s voice comes over the PA.
“Ladies and Gentleman, this is your captain speaking. ATC is reporting some heavy turbulence up ahead and it looks like we aren’t going to be able to miss it. Please return to your seats and make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened. Flight attendants, please be seated.”
Jen, Neil, and Mary parked the carts in the galley, returned to their jumpseats and strapped in.
The turbulence was the worst any of them had been through. The plane dropped five feet and then was thrown ten feet back up. The cart tipped over in the galley sending buckets of ice and exploding soda cans rolling down the aisle. A few passengers were letting out short chirps of fear but those were quickly drowned out when the blind man began to scream.
The sound of fear and the sound of pain have two different tones. Fear has a higher pitch, it comes from the sharp exhalation of lungs holding their breath. Pain comes from deep within the lungs, maybe even from the sub-lungs. It’s more like a roar than a scream.
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHH. He’s got my leg! He’s got my leg!”
Dogs have a lot of senses that people lack. They can hear, smell, and feel things that we’re unable too. They cannot, however, predict turbulence and so they’re more prone to panic than people when the floor starts throwing them around. Also, planes aren’t equipped with doggy seat belts.
The normally docile Lab had bitten into his owners leg as the plane started to pitch him around and wasn’t letting go. When the plane dropped another ten feet, as the passengers and flight attendants were being thrown up against their seatbelts, the dog was thrown up against the cabin ceiling and then dropped back two rows behind where he promptly decided to hold on to another passengers arm…with his teeth.
The man who’s arm he had latched on to was a bit stronger than the blind man and he was able to grab the dog and throw him towards the aisle. The Lab slid into a woman’s ankle and again tried to hold on. She was too quick for him and was able to plant her heel into his nose, which sent him rolling backwards down the aisle as the captain pulled the plane upwards in an attempt to rise above the violent turbulence.
The Lab, with blood and panic smeared all over him rolled down the aisle towards the back of the plane. A leg was sticking out from the last row of seats and the panicked dog grabbed a hold of it.
“OOOWWW! You son of a,” BANG.
Unfortunately for the dog, he had grabbed a hold of the leg of a Federal Air Marshal, one of the few people allowed to carry a firearm on an airplane.
“Stay calm,” the Marshal shouted as people began to scream again. He lifted his badge in the air for everyone to see. “I’m an Air Marshal.”
The cabin went silent as people tried to comprehend everything that had just happened.
“Did someone shoot my dog?” the blind man asked in a cracked voice. “Did someone shoot Teddy?”
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2 comments:
I must say you have an active imagination. But no air marshal would ever discharge a weapon on a plane because of a panicked pooch. The risks of discharging a weapon in an aircraft far outweighs the risk of controlling an animal. Not only would you blow out every ear drum within 20 feet, you would risk shooting a bullet into the floor of the aircraft, where many flight control cables run.
If I did find myself in that position, I would have thrown a blanket over the dog's head which would have made him blind (funny pun) and restricted the dogs movement that way. In a narrow isle, the dog would have no where to retreat to. Our job is to prevent hijackings and if need be –– to kill terrorists –– not scared animals. Other than that, the story was pretty good.
Hey, thanks for the comment. These Jumpseat legends are partially my imagination but mostly stories that have been blow up by Flight Attendants in a "whisper down the lane" style.
In my experience, Federal Air Marshals are far more intelligent and responsible than the fictionalized version in this legend. Still, the story wouldn't be as interesting if it ended, "And then the dog calmed down. The end."
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