Salon :: Tech & Business

Ask the pilot: Anatomy of a delay: It's payback time as the pilot endures a 24-hour snowstorm saga

Last month, after a storm socked in Kennedy airport, marooning thousands of fliers on ice-encrusted jets, I spent two columns analyzing the nuts and bolts of weather delays. I emphasized the rarity of large-scale weather fiascoes, while pointing out potential downsides of the so-called passenger bill of rights now being championed by travelers' advocates and politicians. Readers were, let's just say, less than satisfied, calling me everything from an asshole to an airline apologist. I was accused of being aloof, out of touch, and snidely unsympathetic to the miseries faced by stranded passengers.

Admittedly, I was writing from the comfortable, if not exactly luxurious, confines of my apartment. And one of the things I chose not to mention -- first, because nobody would have believed me, and second, because I'd have been burned in effigy for saying it -- is that in all my years of commercial flying, whether as a passenger or a crew member, on a domestic or an international flight, I had never once experienced a delay lasting more than about three hours.

I can't say for certain if I jinxed myself, or if perhaps one of my detractors put a hex on me. Whatever the case, it didn't take long for my number to come up.

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