Another Boeing Airplane Falls Apart In Mid Air, This Time An Entire Engine Cover Ripped Off On A Flight From Denver To Houston
As someone who has been to Denver MULTIPLE times, and has once spent half a day in the Houston airport for a layover (shoutout Pappadeaux), this one hits especially close to home. In a hypothetical scenario where I was visiting my little brother in Denver, then decided to make a pit stop in Houston to catch an Astros' game and purchase a pair of authentic snakeskin boots on my way back to the city, that could have been me on that plane. Narrowly avoided that one.
How many Boeing airplanes would have to disintegrate at 35,000 feet in the air until we stopped hopping on them without a second thought? Even if we reached a point where 10% of all Boeing flights ended in an emergency landing, I still think we'd keep flying. Hell, if I had a flight from New York to Los Angeles, and before we boarded someone came over the loudspeaker and told us plainly that there's a 10% chance the engine of this plane blows up and we'll be forced to land in a cornfield somewhere in Oklahoma, I think I'm still getting on that plane. What am I gonna do, wait another 4 hours for an Airbus to be ready? That's insane. That's another 8 airport drinks, plus a whole meal, plus at least 20 dollars in candy. All the sudden I'm pushing a $200 bill. I can't afford that. I'll just roll my dice with Boeing, catch some shut eye on the plane, and cross my fingers that I don't wake up to see that the wing has burst into flames. And if something terrible does happen, I might even get a $50 airport voucher out of it.
Honestly, with all these Boeing plane disasters that keep happening, everyone seems to make it out ok right? For Christ sakes an entire emergency exit door ripped off an Alaska Airlines flight and nobody was hurt. I would have thought that meant everybody on the plane was dead. But nope. People just pulled their phones out, took some videos, and enjoyed a nice cool breeze.
Then they probably waited in the terminal for a few hours until the next Boeing aircraft held together with duct tape was ready to drag them to their final destination. I'm starting to think even if both wings ripped off, the pilot would still have a way to land the aircraft safely.
Obviously I'm kidding to a degree. I'm sure if you look at the numbers, something like 99.998% of Boeing airplanes arrive at their destination fully in tact. And now that the Boeing is in the news, any sort of problem with one of their planes is going to get blasted across the internet. But I really do think it would take something insane for people to actually stop flying in Boeing jets. Even if we get 3 more of these stories this week, you might tell yourself, "Next time I fly, I'm going to make sure it's not a Boeing." But here's what's going to happen. Even if you take the time to figure out how to know what type of plane you're buying a ticket for (which I don't even know how you do), the minute you see a convenient Boeing flight that gets you to your vacation destination at the exact right time, and the non-Boeing option puts you there half a day later, or god forbid involves a layover, you're gonna think about it for 3 seconds and decide, "Fuck it, I'm sure it'll be fine."
And it will be fine. I'm not even sure what point I'm trying to make. It's just funny how you see all these stories on the internet, and everybody in the comments is like "Fuck that I'm never flying Boeing again." But in reality they're all full of shit. The number would have to be crazy before most people actually bothered to take the plane manufacturer into account when traveling. You might choose a non-Boeing plane if it's convenient. But the second it becomes even the slightest bit of inconvenient, you're gonna say, "Fuck it, I'd rather have an extra 4 hours in Turks & Caicos."