I've been a faithful customer of Southwest for over a year now, and have flown on their airlines at least five times without a problem. They treat instruments and instrumentalists with respect, they hand out ample snacks and drinks free of charge, and allow two free checked bags. But just when I thought I had finally found a trustworthy airline...
On Friday, I flew from Detroit to Las Vegas, and then Las Vegas to San Jose. The first flight was fine, and the second flight started out fine. I was pretty happy, besides for being extremely hot from wearing a sweatshirt and sweats in Vegas weather. I fell asleep as we made our ascent, but woke up thirty minutes later drenched in sweat. My ears were popping every few seconds, which is not an usual occurrence. The plane was really turbulent and scary, but nobody on the plane was making a sound. All of a sudden, the pilot's voice came over the intercom, announcing that there was a pressurization problem with the aircraft, and we had to turn around and go back to Vegas as quickly as possible, for safety reasons.
Immediately, people began panicking. The guy next to me threw up in his barf bag, an old lady in front of me threw up as well, a lady behind me continually pressed her help button...even the airline attendants seemed frightened. They told the complaining lady, "Just plug your ears and keep opening your mouth!" and frantically darted back to the front of the plane. The first thought that went through my head was, "Fantastic, I just got a job, and now I'm going to die." (This is what employment obsession does to you.) My heart was pounding, and I was opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish. The air seemed to be getting thinner, and the cabin was burning. It also didn't help that the plane was experiencing pretty bad turbulence. The pilot later told us that we almost had to use the yellow oxygen masks above our heads. However, after a terrifying thirty minutes of rapid temperature and altitude changes, we were returned to land with a hearty bump.
About an hour later, we boarded a different aircraft. For the first time in my life, as the airline attendants were giving the safety precautions on how to use life vests in case of an emergency, the whole plane was so silent with rapt attention, you could have heard a pin drop.
