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turbinetree

(24,632 posts)
Fri May 8, 2020, 01:50 PM May 2020

I Just Flew. It Was Worse Than I Thought It Would Be.

The surreal experience of flying during a pandemic, and the false promise of a return to normal

MCKAY COPPINS
5:00 AM ET

The cabin was restless. It was a weekday afternoon in late April, and I was among dozens of people boarding an airplane that most of us had assumed would be empty. Flight attendants were scrambling to accommodate seat-change requests. Travelers—stuffed shoulder to shoulder into two-seat rows—grumbled at one another from behind masks. An ominous announcement came over the in-flight PA system: “We apologize for the alarming amount of passengers on this flight.” Each of us was a potential vector of deadly disease.

I arrived at my assigned row, and found a stocky, gray-haired man in the seat next to mine. When I moved to sit down, he stopped me. “Sit there,” he said gruffly, pointing to the aisle behind us. “Social distance.”

Not eager for a confrontation, I decided to comply. Within seconds, though, a flight attendant materialized and ordered me back to my assigned seat. My recalcitrant would-be seatmate, vigorously objecting to this development, responded by blocking my entrance to the row with his leg.

A standoff ensued, with the irate passenger protesting that there were plenty of empty rows where I could sit (there weren’t) and the long-suffering flight attendant all but threatening to kick him off the plane (she didn’t). Finally, he relented and I squeezed awkwardly into my seat as the man muttered profanities under his breath.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/is-flying-safe-coronavirus/611335/

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I Just Flew. It Was Worse Than I Thought It Would Be. (Original Post) turbinetree May 2020 OP
I would like to thank the author of this piece musette_sf May 2020 #1
Me also.............. turbinetree May 2020 #2
Agreed! Never have. Never will. nt crickets May 2020 #4
I'm stubborn that way as well. phylny May 2020 #5
Did you HAVE to fly? You couldn't pay me to fly anywhere right now Baclava May 2020 #3
I couldn't help it; I laughed so hard. crickets May 2020 #6
...if at all! Totally Tunsie May 2020 #7

musette_sf

(10,184 posts)
1. I would like to thank the author of this piece
Fri May 8, 2020, 01:55 PM
May 2020

for referring to DCA as Washington National Airport.

I never, EVER call it by its latter-day revisionist name.

crickets

(25,896 posts)
6. I couldn't help it; I laughed so hard.
Fri May 8, 2020, 02:25 PM
May 2020
The layover at O’Hare was where my fellow travelers’ fraying nerves came more fully into view. In the restroom, men hovered over sinks like warriors returning from battle, fervently washing their hands and shooting menacing looks at anyone who got too close.


You know most of them weren't washing their hands that fervently a couple of months ago...
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