The takeoff from Seoul Incheon Airport was a bit of a hint of the magnitute of the day to come. The takeoff of this fully loaded 747-400 was up for this or not. Visibility was a blinding blizzard snow, maybe less than 1/4 mile down the fast approaching runway. No slipping and sliding but pure push...right back into your seat....at liftoff... we were flying at 200 plus mph, and the world was turning all white very fast.
Entering San Francisco airspace 10 hours later... similar marginal visibility in a heavy rain. Landed safely...tired but was upside down after 3.5 weeks in Asia...Flight to San Diego cancelled.... but waitlisted!
I sat for 5 hours and watched this one great gate agent take care of every detail of getting those planes loaded, their people happy, and efficiency standards met. I mean with grace, with tact toward every passenger like me, delayed, tired. Families, people with stories, people who wanted upgrades, some kind, some not. This agent was this company's best I have seen. Tough job. Everybody stressed, someone standing strong. He was pure tower of strength with grace.
I was one of the lucky this night... I was finally homeward bound. I was so close to sleeping, I could not sleep.......
There were all kinds on that flight tonight, sizes, agendas,...I was just there to get through the longest journey home. I believed I had done it when wheels hit the runway in San Diego. I remember some faces on this flight. The rainbows in Hawaii looked no more beautiful than the ones this evening with the families who saw them from San Francisco airport. I guess I was lucky to be there after all. What's a few lost hours for a lifetime memory of a beautiful family who saw a double rainbow their first time, welcomed by me taking their picture...in my country...for their memory and for me too....
It is good to be home tonight, but this flight will go down as the one that almost wasn't. The million mile flight should be one that is most memorable for the passenger and for all the special people, pilots, and more along the way including the passengers who sit beside you by chance....This one was a milestone for me, and will be ever with me because of that Korean family whose picture I took for them with the double rainbow behind them at SFO....on the ground while waiting for the next flight...
A million miles...at 650 miles per hour max..., maybe 400mph average with takeoffs, landings and delays....not so many hours after all spanning the world. Just really a snapshot in the time of our life.
You fly hard and long....
You see many along the way...
Nothing more beautiful than a rainbow....
On the face of a child...
Waiting for their way....
Your journey is clear...
It is not at the end...
Of this trip...
Or of this rainbow...
But along the way....
It's true after all...
It really is our friendly skies...
We fly on through...
And those fellow travellers we meet...
With grace...standing tall.
Chance. Rainbows. That is what life is all about, right?
Entering San Francisco airspace 10 hours later... similar marginal visibility in a heavy rain. Landed safely...tired but was upside down after 3.5 weeks in Asia...Flight to San Diego cancelled.... but waitlisted!
I sat for 5 hours and watched this one great gate agent take care of every detail of getting those planes loaded, their people happy, and efficiency standards met. I mean with grace, with tact toward every passenger like me, delayed, tired. Families, people with stories, people who wanted upgrades, some kind, some not. This agent was this company's best I have seen. Tough job. Everybody stressed, someone standing strong. He was pure tower of strength with grace.
I was one of the lucky this night... I was finally homeward bound. I was so close to sleeping, I could not sleep.......
There were all kinds on that flight tonight, sizes, agendas,...I was just there to get through the longest journey home. I believed I had done it when wheels hit the runway in San Diego. I remember some faces on this flight. The rainbows in Hawaii looked no more beautiful than the ones this evening with the families who saw them from San Francisco airport. I guess I was lucky to be there after all. What's a few lost hours for a lifetime memory of a beautiful family who saw a double rainbow their first time, welcomed by me taking their picture...in my country...for their memory and for me too....
It is good to be home tonight, but this flight will go down as the one that almost wasn't. The million mile flight should be one that is most memorable for the passenger and for all the special people, pilots, and more along the way including the passengers who sit beside you by chance....This one was a milestone for me, and will be ever with me because of that Korean family whose picture I took for them with the double rainbow behind them at SFO....on the ground while waiting for the next flight...
A million miles...at 650 miles per hour max..., maybe 400mph average with takeoffs, landings and delays....not so many hours after all spanning the world. Just really a snapshot in the time of our life.
You fly hard and long....
You see many along the way...
Nothing more beautiful than a rainbow....
On the face of a child...
Waiting for their way....
Your journey is clear...
It is not at the end...
Of this trip...
Or of this rainbow...
But along the way....
It's true after all...
It really is our friendly skies...
We fly on through...
And those fellow travellers we meet...
With grace...standing tall.
Chance. Rainbows. That is what life is all about, right?
