Northwest Airlines Veers Southeast

I'm scheduled to fly to Italy in six days on a Northwest/KLM flight via Amsterdam. I'm feeling kind of nervous following an Associated Press report today that a Northwest pilot on a flight to Rapid City, South Dakota, accidentally landed an aircraft full of passengers at an Air Force base rather than the Rapid City civilian airport.

Oops.

A few minutes later, passengers were instructed to close their shades and not look out the window while the pilot and crew were interrogated for three hours.

According to the AP, Northwest Airlines Spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch refused to identify the pilot or crew. And, the article states, the spokesman would not "say if the pilot made an error."

Mr. Ebenhoch, sir, with all due respect... the pilot screwed up. Royally. You can admit it.

I can't remember the last time I've flown on Northwest, but I remember quite well my last flight on its European partner airline, KLM. The year was 1994, and I was flying from Amsterdam to Chicago. At around noon, Amsterdam time, the first round of drinks was served. Most people were sticking to juice and soda.

A little while later, now two hours out over the Atlantic Ocean, the head flight attendant came on the intercom and announced, "I'm afraid I have a very annoying announcement." The plane had a technical problem. We had to turn around and go back to Amsterdam.

This was followed by another announcement: "Please do not be alarmed if you see fuel spilling off the wings of the aircraft."

Then came a third announcement that there was no time to serve us lunch, but the flight attendants were going to come through with another round of beverages. This time, people started ordering booze.

And the airline encouraged it. They didn't use the usual airline mini bottles. They brought the good stuff from first class back to us peasants in economy class, and started pouring large, stiff drinks for anyone who requested one. I'm not sure what the logic was in getting us all sloshed just before making an emergency landing. If we had to evacuate, sobriety seemed the most logical state of mind to be in.

We landed safely. We spent six hours at Schiphol Airport waiting for a new aircraft. Add that to the four hours in the air on the first U-turned flight, and the total delay was 10 hours. To compensate us for the inconvenience, KLM bought us each a sandwich.

Comments

[Mike Vollmer]

If you participate in their frequent flyer program and something like that delay happens to you, write a letter to NWA or KLM (or both) and you probably will find 10-20,000 extra miles credited to your account.