Friday, Dallas, Texas

The University of Southern California football team traveled to South Bend for their game this weekend with Notre Dame. As they approached the airport the pilots flew directly into a vicious thunderstorm that rocked the plane so violently that passengers were thrown out of their seats!

The players and the coaches said it was absolutely "terrifying." In fact the plane had to abort it’s first landing attempt and circled for twenty minutes before trying again. I have a question: what were these morons at the controls,and the nitwits in the tower thinking, to try this approach into some of the worst storm weather we have had in the Midwest this year?

Any peek at the doppler made it clear that the thunderstorms and…oh by the way…the twister south of the airport around the same time made a landing risky! It drives me crazy when pilots, knowing that passengers are feeling vulnerable in their care, take unnecessary risks of extreme discomfort if not actual danger.

Flyers who cope well generally do so by shutting out their anxieties and trusting the system. In other words, they use therapeutic denial. And why not, it’s actually the only strategy that we really have in such situations of helplessness. But for many this distraction strategy is paper thin. Many react emotionally at the first signs that something is not “normal.”

I assume after a century of commercial flight experience, the industry understands this and takes measures to alleviate passenger concerns. Evidently the morons flying the USC team didn’t get the memo or are rejects from better airlines.

I confess to zero tolerance for idiots with cowboy confidence who take risks with my life sitting helplessly in the back of the plane. As far as I am concerned all the boneheads associated with this frightening escapade should be looking for work today. Because I have to fly again tomorrow!