Surrealism from the terror
This terrifying tale had a happy ending, fortunately, but the details are just surreal. First, here’s what happened:
It was gripping television. A commercial jetliner unable to retract its front landing gear circled for three hours south of Los Angeles, burning fuel, before it attempted an emergency landing. As the pictures were carried live on TV, aviation experts pondered the likely fate of the 145 people on board.
On the plane the passengers and crew watched the images and listened to the experts, thanks to the seatback TV sets tuned to cable news channels.
Here are the things which stood out to me:
“We couldn’t believe the irony, that we were watching our own demise on TV - it was all too post-post-modern,” [...]
Immediately after Jet Blue flight 292’s take-off at 3.17pm from Burbank’s Bob Hope airport [...]
“We all cheered. I was bawling. I cried so much,” Christine Lund, 25, who was travelling with her cat, told the Associated Press. The cat was so excited during the flight, she said, she had given it a sedative to help it through the tense landing.
Of course, the passengers telling this story to the waiting media is all too post-post-post modern. Meanwhile, at East London’s Jim Davidson airport…
