Up Up & A Gay – A Flight Attendant Blog

I was on day 2 of 4, working Seattle to Los Angeles, back to Seattle, then once again, back to Los Angeles. I was flying with a crew that I knew but haven’t flown with before. I actually did one of their IOEs a year ago. Having that faith in her really came in handy.

We were getting ready to land as usual in Seattle from LA, nothing was out of the ordinary. Suddenly, we hit moderate to sever turbulence on our final decent. The aircraft was banking left, right, up, down, the tail was swinging as the front turned.. it was a very rough ride. The looks on the passengers faces in first class was a look of nervousness.

The landing gear came down, and the flight attendants received our two minute warning. I took my jumpseat, content as usual – knowing that all of my safety checks were done correctly and my cabin crew was seated. Thank god.

As we started our short final, things got hectic. The aircraft hit wind shear and we were again experiencing moderate to sever turbulence. As we got closer to the airport, I began to see the lights from the runway, I knew this was going to be a rough landing. Seconds before the aircraft would have been fully on the ground, wind shear again. Both pilots, in unison, decided to abort the landing. I expected it. I was prepping myself for an emergency had we landed. Yes, it was that bad. We had actually touched our main landing gear to the runway, and the wind shear then blew us off the runway onto the grass.

As we shot back to the skies like a rocket, and the airplane was making noises airplanes shouldn’t make.. I sat there.. smiling. 1A was having a panic attack. She kept screaming “its not safe to land” “its not safe to land” to which I screamed over the bulkhead “we’re not landing!”

Finally, after stabilizing our altitude the Captain came on the PA to address the passengers.

As you can see, Seattle is a little windy tonight. We didn’t feel comfortable putting the plane on the ground in that wind… so we’re going to go around.. take another look at it.. and it’s safe.. we’re going to land. If not.. we’ll worry about that when it happens — but air traffic control is saying it should be okay.

Then my phone rang. The Captain explained to me what had happened.. the main landing gear had touched the runway and the wind sheer blew us off course, and off the runway. We were going around, the landing should be normal and fine and if I had any questions. I didn’t.

I then called to the back to make sure the other FAs were holding up okay and heard the information the Captain announced over the P.A. They both said they were doing fine, the passengers seemed okay, and they were enjoying the ride.

As I hung up the phone the passenger in 1F looked over at me and mouthed “we’re going to be okay, right?” I said, yes. Though, reviewing my commands and prepping myself for the worst I too wanted to hear everything was going to be okay.

As we started on our go around.. and went back through the turbulence to line up to land, again, I started to watch the people in first class become friends with each other, pray, and some began to cry.

After a few minutes we received the signal from the flight deck to take our seats and prepare for landing. We never stood up, anyway, it was entirely too bumpy and unsafe, so we were ready.

As began our decent we hit the same wind, rain and wind shear we did the first time, making me feel uncomfortable about a second attempt at landing. The passengers were beginning to cry louder and hold hands. Finally, the landing gear was deployed again and we were going to give it another shot. We landed, safely. And it was the smoothest landing I’ve had in a long time.

Trying to make light of the situation, and reassure everyone that they’re okay and the aircraft is still in tact, I get on the PA and said “well……..welcome to Seattle” and closed it by saying “We hope you’ve enjoyed your experience with us today.. and we look forward to seeing you soon!” As the passengers were getting off the plane each and every one of them stopped to say thank you to me and the flight deck. Some said “thanks” some said “thanks for saving my life” and some walked right past us without saying a word.

I looked to the back of the cabin and saw that were was 2 pax still in their seats. So I went to back to the back and there was an elderly woman, probably in her late 60’s who was visibly shaken up. She was crying, shaking and didn’t want to move. I had one of the other FAs grab me a bottle of water and told her I would be bring her bag to the front so that whenever she was ready, she could walk to the front. Once I got to the front of the aircraft I also had ground support order her a wheel chair.

I look over, across the aisle from this woman, and there was another woman, this one was laying on the floor. I asked her the same thing, got her some water and the other FA moved her bags to the front. I kept telling both of them “its okay, we’re on the ground now.. everything is fine.” For some reason I didn’t think they believed me.

As the elderly woman walked off the aircraft she did get in the wheelchair. She was feeling weak in her knees and didn’t want to walk.

After the passengers were all gone the Captain came out of the flight deck for a debriefing. That’s when we were told about how we were blown off the runway, and how the decision was made to go around. He then asked us if were okay or if we had any questions. None of us had any.. we were all pretty calm because we never got up out of our seats.

In retrospect, we should have done a quick walk through to make sure everyone was okay, but I really don’t think it was safe enough.

Anyway, a few minutes after our debriefing .. one of the gate agents comes down to the aircraft and said “Are you ready to board?”

And that quickly you have to forget about what just happened, could have happened and might happen.. put the fake smile back on your face and work one more flight before going to bed.