Many of us have harrowing flight stories. Mine from earlier this week was one of my scariest ones yet. Having spent too much time in airplanes in my pre-MND life, I have had more than a few experiences on airplanes that have left me shaken up. A last-second aborted flight, scary the first time, barely registers with me anymore. Once, four-plus hours into an 11-hour flight from São Paulo, Brazil, to Chicago and over the Amazon rainforest, the pilots suddenly told us that we had “engine troubles” and needed to return all the way to São Paulo. That was a long four hours, as no one really knew how much of the real story about the airplane issues we were being told. Screaming kids, out of control passengers, vomiting, bad turbulence — I felt like I had pretty much seen, heard and smelled it all.
But my Viva flight from Monterrey, Mexico, to Querétaro earlier this week was a doozy unlike any other. I was coming back home after some great meetings in the northern city. Monterrey is buzzing with activity pre-World Cup and I wanted to check things out firsthand and talk to leaders on the ground there. I will write about all of this in future columns. But quite honestly, I don’t have the headspace to organize my thoughts from the trip just yet as I am still reeling from my return flight experience.
The flight left on time and it looked like we were going to arrive a few minutes early — totally uneventful. But as we began the landing sequence with 20 minutes left, I started to notice a strange color outside of the windows. The sky suddenly started turning dark and visibility was significantly reduced. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. Smoke from fires? An approaching storm? And then it hit me: It was a massive dust storm. The wind picked up dramatically and you could see massive clouds of dust kicking up everywhere. Within seconds, the plane began to shake.
As we got closer to the airport, the shaking intensified. The type of shaking that was unpredictable — soft, then suddenly violent, then soft again, then very violent. The plane got quiet as everyone closed their eyes and waited for it to end. I suffer from vertigo, and this type of shaking often gives me a sharp, severe headache — this flight was no exception. As we approached the runway, the plane was shaking and swaying. When we hit about 100 feet of altitude, the pilots suddenly aborted the landing and pulled up.
On one hand, it was nice to have the shaking less intense for a few seconds, but people were clearly rattled. After a few minutes, the pilot came on the air and said that strong winds made the landing dangerous. He said we would circle back and try again. The plane continued shaking as we banked and came in for the second attempt at landing. This time, as we neared the runway, the shaking was even more violent. At the last second, the pilots once again aborted the landing.
People were pretty much in freak-out mode by this point. Someone kept hitting the flight attendant call button. A flight attendant on the loudspeaker said that due to the turbulence, they could not get up, but the person should press the button again if it was an emergency. The next second or two felt like an eternity, and then the call button went off again, and again, and again. Someone was clearly not doing well. People very nervously started looking at each other and also at the flight attendants to see what they were going to do.
The pilot came on the loudspeaker again and told us that it was currently impossible to land in Querétaro and that instead, we were going to fly to the Morelia airport, in the neighboring state of Michoacán, to wait out the storm from there. Within 20 minutes, we landed there without incident. We waited it out for just over an hour and then did a 23-minute flight back to Querétaro, landing smoothly just over two hours past our original landing time. Everyone clapped and cheered. It was wonderful to finally be at our final destination.
A few observations:
- The young flight attendants were world-class. They stayed happy, positive, smiling, and encouraging the entire time. They exuded calm and confidence.
- The pilots were equally outstanding. They were calm as they clearly explained in Spanish and English what had happened and what would happen next. While parked in Morelia, they came out of the cockpit, smiling, and chatted with anxious passengers.
- The passengers, almost all Mexicans, were calm and well-behaved. We have all seen too many examples lately of passengers becoming impatient or belligerent. Everyone was hot, stressed, tired and anxious, but not one single person lost their cool.
- The young couple sitting next to me was awesome. She was born and raised in San Miguel de Allende. He is a Mexican American born in Texas. They were coming to SMA for a few days to spend Mother’s Day with her grandmother — how sweet is that? I don’t talk to people enough on airplanes and need to make an effort to do so more. It’s too easy to just look down at our phones and not talk to anyone, but a flight is a wonderful chance to connect on a human level with a complete stranger. Human connection — that seems to be something we do less and less of these days. I recently wrote about a beautiful flight connection with a man flying to Los Cabos to celebrate his 80th birthday. Click here to read it.
As I deboarded the plane, I thanked the pilots and the flight attendants, also telling them that they had my utmost respect for the way that they handled the situation. The next morning, I woke up to a text message from the couple seated next to me, telling me that they were inspired by my story of moving to Mexico and buying Mexico News Daily. They said that they had just purchased a subscription and were loving our content. They had told me that their dream is to get back to Mexico at some point. Maybe MND will inspire them?
It’s weird how life sometimes throws us curveballs to see how we react. It feels like we are collectively getting an increasing number of them thrown at us lately, and it’s often scary to think about how we are going to handle it. That said, this particular curveball left me feeling particularly optimistic about us humans — or at least those on that Viva flight from Monterrey to Querétaro.
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
