Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My sweety is still stuck in Miami

What was supposed to be a one week trip is turning out to be an unexpected extended stay.  She gets to fly for free thanks to her sister, but it has to be on standby, basically last priority out of all the passengers who need seats.  Getting over there was easy.  Coming back, however… what an ordeal.  American Airlines canceled thousands of flights, causing major delays for tons of travelers, not to mention jacking up ticket prices because desperate travelers didn’t have much choice if they wanted to go home.

I was curious why the FAA would order the airline to ground so many planes at once, so I read some news articles.  Basically they want them to inspect the grounded planes for correct wiring.  More specifically, to ensure that the wires are tied off in a particular direction.  ...Excuse me?  I don’t know much about engineering, but is it really necessary to ground hundreds of planes at once to make emergency repairs on… the direction some wire ties are facing?? WTF? Sounds to me like someone in the FAA is on a power trip.  Yeah I know, safety first. But come on, they couldn’t inspect them in batches?  Exactly how dangerous is a wire tie when it’s facing left instead of right?

Pardon my crankiness while I face my third week without my sweetheart.  I haven’t been away from her for more than a few days until now. To fill the void, I’ve been catching up on some sci fi shows, particularly Star Trek: Enterprise. It’s the only Star Trek series (besides the original series) that I didn’t follow. I rather like it. I just started Season 3.  I’d rather have my baby back though. (And I’m not talking about ribs.)