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McNiff's Riffs: 'Taking the wheel' in times of crisis

It's been a difficult week for air travel. In this day and age, we take for granted that we can get on an airplane, an airplane that will go up in the air, and in a given amount of time, touch-down safely in a different state or a different country, and everything will be just fine.
Credit: NTSB
NTSB investigators on scene in Philadelphia examining damage to the engine of a Southwest Airlines plane that tore apart and sent shrapnel through a window during a flight from New York to Dallas on April 17, 2018.

I’d like to tell you a little secret about myself.

It’s not that big a deal, really. It’s just something I started doing years ago, it’s always worked for me.... and I sincerely hope it always will.

So, in the spirit of trying to give you something of value, something I hope will always work for 'you' too, I’ll just start by saying, it’s something I do every time I fly.

READ: More McNiff's Riffs

You see, it’s been a difficult week for air travel. In this day and age, we take for granted that we can get on an airplane, an airplane that will go up in the air, and in a given amount of time, touch-down safely in a different state or a different country, and everything will be just fine.

We either don’t think about, or choose not to think about, the MANY things that have to happen, the many jobs that have to be performed for even one flight to take-off and land without incident. Not to mention that this process is being repeated, thousands of times a day, every day, day-after-day, year-after-year, across the globe.

When you take all of that into account, it’s amazing we don’t have tragic outcomes in air travel more often. I mean, look at how we do with driving: Add a little bit of “weather” and it quickly shows that as a species, we’re really not all that great at this whole transportation thing.

During last weekend’s snow storm (between Friday and Monday) the State Patrol reported 630 vehicle crashes statewide, 69 with injuries, while some 1,182 vehicles either spun out or slid off icy and snow-packed roads. On Sunday afternoon an accident involving a car and a Metro Transit bus killed one person and injured two others.

On the flying front, that record-setting snow storm forced MSP International to shut down for eight-hours on Saturday, canceling and delaying untold flights and forcing some 250 people to “extend” their vacations in Los Cabos and Mazatlan when Sun Country made a conscious decision to become just the latest airline to forget who they are... and what purpose they serve.

At the risk of sounding like Jerry Seinfeld (and not trying in the least to be funny), "What’s the deal with airlines and customer service?” Either the airlines, who already have us at their mercy through lack of competition, are spending the bulk of their time finding new ways to squeeze you for every last dime, or they’re treating their customers like a commodity rather than human beings.

As you probably know by now, last weekend’s storm forced Sun Country to cancel flights for vacationers who had scheduled return flights from those locations. Citing poor weather and the end of their Mexico flying season, Sun Country essentially told their stranded customers that they now had no planes to get them home, and that they were on their own.

That is, they told that to those customers who could even 'reach' them. Some tried for hours but never got through. Many would-be passengers took to social media in an effort to get help and to shame Sun Country into action, only to have those efforts fall on deaf ears. It wasn’t until days later, after both of Minnesota’s Senators applied significant pressure, that Sun Country finally showed even the slightest bits of responsibility and remorse. Even then, only the slightest.

Just when it looked like Sun Country was finally starting to come around, belatedly offering to cover the additional expenses incurred by the passengers they abandoned last weekend, CEO Jude Bricker still managed to prove he still doesn’t get it. “Even if we had been able to staff per the plan, we could have not handled the roughly 6,000 passengers who were affected by a canceled flight”, Bricker insisted in a company-wide memo.

Maybe not Jude, but here’s the deal: If you would have thought of your customers as people you serve, rather than pieces of commerce that you’re forced to deal with, my guess is this problem gets solved a whole lot faster and without nearly so much fallout.

A heavy reminder that it’s always all about people comes from the other major aviation-based story this week, the tragedy on Southwest flight 1380. For some unknown reason on that flight from New York to Dallas, an engine on that Boeing 737 exploded in mid-flight, claiming the life of passenger Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old Wells Fargo bank executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Several others were injured.

Credit: USA Today
Southwest Airlines pilot Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Military, is being called a hero for her cool under fire in landing a depressurized jet with just one engine, and 148 passengers aboard. 

In the midst of that crisis, at the controls for Southwest was Tammie Jo Shults, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, who ripped a page out of the Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger playbook, and made an emergency landing of the crippled plane at Philadelphia International Airport. Riordan perished, but 148 people on-board were saved.

To prove the point that it’s never about just one person, the first thing Shults did when she was safely on the ground was to thank the people in the control tower for their help, before then walking back to check on the welfare of her passengers.

Which brings me back to Sun Country, and that thing I always do, every time I fly.

Full disclosure, I have flown Sun Country for years and I have personally never had a bad experience. As a matter of fact, when my daughter was attending school out east Sun Country was our first choice when it came to her travel, and they never let us down.

That being said, what Sun Country needed during last weekend’s storm (which was widely predicted, well in advance) was somebody who had the training and the courage to take the wheel. Someone who understood that they were responsible for the customers who were involved. Someone who understood that even though they may not have been staffed to a level to help all of the affected travelers, they had to TRY.

So, that thing I always do, every time I fly?

After my flight lands and we’re deplaning (Man, I hate that word!), I always say a sincere “Thank You” to the pilot and crew. Many times, by the time I reach the cockpit, they’re long gone, but I say it anyway, just not very loud.

I figure, flying is one of those times where my fate is completely in the hands of others and I have no control. So, to say thank you to those who allow me to safely complete my trip seems like a very small, but at the same time, significant thing.

Try it some time. It always works for me.

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