Tuesday, June 23, 2009
nightmare at 35 thousand ft
working in the airline industry accidents and fatal crashes are a more likely (though very few and far between) possibility for me than for the common american. They're not something i fear or dread when i go to work. and i have never worried that my pilots may not be capable of handling the weather or some technical mishap. for some reason though, i had my first nightmare about crashing while napping onboard a jetblue A-320. i was heading towards Seattle after working the red-eye to new york and thought i'd try to rest while i had the down time.
the dream:
I am dead heading on a virgin flight in which one of my friends is working the lead position (first class flight attendant). i am sitting on the right side of the aircraft in an aisle seat when the captain calls from the flight deck. "prepare for an emergency landing, brace positions." he tells my friend. she is afraid and overwhelmed so i move from my seat to the jump seat (flight attendant chair near the exit) next to her and tell her that i will handle the front right door so that she can focus on just one door as opposed to two. she is crying, though trying not to and her emotion makes me tear up as we descend faster and faster towards the ground. suddenly both she and i are not on a virgin flight but non-reving (non revenue) on a delta flight sitting on the right hand side of the plane in the aisle and middle seat. as the ground nears i try to shout my commands to the passengers to put their heads down and to stay down for the impending landing but because i am ill i can only croak out the words and so i stop yelling and try to clear my throat. this makes my friend stop yelling to look at me, and because the delta commands and our commands are different, in confusion the delta flight attendants have stopped yelling. i try to shout my commands again and when i do a man across the aisle gets angry and shouts to me that he knows he needs to be in brace position and to stop yelling at him. i look out the window and see that we are about to crash into the airport parking lot. as we slide across the space people and cars cannot get out of the way, we slam into them and keeping sliding under an overpass, the plane is torn open two rows in front of me by a pylon i can hear the metal all around me screeching under the stress of the crash. we keep sliding and for some reason the cabin is restored and everyone is silent still hunched over in brace position. we're not slowing down but we're not speeding up and i can hear ATC over the radio trying to contact the pilots, they don't answer. thinking that they are incapacitated i make my way to the front of the still moving plane and force my way into the flight deck. the pilots are there, just lounging back in their seats with their arms crossed behind their head. i yell at them "can't you hear ATC? they want you to brake!" they both look at me like 'oh, i didn't realize we were skidding out of control!' they brake and we slow down..
then i wake up in a cabin full of newyorkers and seattlites with two hours left until we land. it left me time to think about possible meanings and if its true that things in your subconscious are reversed and if it meant that i will be the one freaking out and crying.. i decided that its bullshit, i won't cry. i will be strong and lead those around me to safety. i still wonder why i had the dream. i have talked to a few flight attendants who have been in the industry for a long time. they say that we've had an airline accident every month for nearly the past 6 months which is uncommon and though there aren't any connection between accidents it still sits uncomfortably in our stomachs.
the dream:
I am dead heading on a virgin flight in which one of my friends is working the lead position (first class flight attendant). i am sitting on the right side of the aircraft in an aisle seat when the captain calls from the flight deck. "prepare for an emergency landing, brace positions." he tells my friend. she is afraid and overwhelmed so i move from my seat to the jump seat (flight attendant chair near the exit) next to her and tell her that i will handle the front right door so that she can focus on just one door as opposed to two. she is crying, though trying not to and her emotion makes me tear up as we descend faster and faster towards the ground. suddenly both she and i are not on a virgin flight but non-reving (non revenue) on a delta flight sitting on the right hand side of the plane in the aisle and middle seat. as the ground nears i try to shout my commands to the passengers to put their heads down and to stay down for the impending landing but because i am ill i can only croak out the words and so i stop yelling and try to clear my throat. this makes my friend stop yelling to look at me, and because the delta commands and our commands are different, in confusion the delta flight attendants have stopped yelling. i try to shout my commands again and when i do a man across the aisle gets angry and shouts to me that he knows he needs to be in brace position and to stop yelling at him. i look out the window and see that we are about to crash into the airport parking lot. as we slide across the space people and cars cannot get out of the way, we slam into them and keeping sliding under an overpass, the plane is torn open two rows in front of me by a pylon i can hear the metal all around me screeching under the stress of the crash. we keep sliding and for some reason the cabin is restored and everyone is silent still hunched over in brace position. we're not slowing down but we're not speeding up and i can hear ATC over the radio trying to contact the pilots, they don't answer. thinking that they are incapacitated i make my way to the front of the still moving plane and force my way into the flight deck. the pilots are there, just lounging back in their seats with their arms crossed behind their head. i yell at them "can't you hear ATC? they want you to brake!" they both look at me like 'oh, i didn't realize we were skidding out of control!' they brake and we slow down..
then i wake up in a cabin full of newyorkers and seattlites with two hours left until we land. it left me time to think about possible meanings and if its true that things in your subconscious are reversed and if it meant that i will be the one freaking out and crying.. i decided that its bullshit, i won't cry. i will be strong and lead those around me to safety. i still wonder why i had the dream. i have talked to a few flight attendants who have been in the industry for a long time. they say that we've had an airline accident every month for nearly the past 6 months which is uncommon and though there aren't any connection between accidents it still sits uncomfortably in our stomachs.
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