Emergency

Once again, we turn to Dictionary.com to help us clarify terminology. This time the word is emergency.

–noun

1. a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action.

2. a state, esp. of need for help or relief, created by some unexpected event: a weather emergency; a financial emergency.

–adjective

3. granted, used, or for use in an emergency: an emergency leave; emergency lights. 
 

So when the airline attendant says it was incorrect to say we had an emergency landing, Catbird, with dictionary.com as her supporting evidence, most respectfully disagrees.

Twenty minutes into our flight from Dallas to Calgary, American Airlines Flight 687 made a sudden lurch, experienced by Catbird as when one brakes the car unexpectedly for an errant pedestrian.  Then the engines (and Catbird knows because seat 32A placed her directly next to one of the engines) began to heave like a 1972 Buick LaSabre with its wheels caught in the mud.  My physicist and I looked at one another and shrugged; he mouthed "no problem" but Catbird shook her head.

In no time the airline attendants were rushing up the aisles with urgent instructions to shut down electronic devices and bring our seat backs and tray tables to the upright and locked positions.  The pilot (in most sonorous and reassuring tones) informed us that we would be returning immediately to Houston for an air pressure problem, and please don't be alarmed by the emergency vehicles that would meet us.  

From the back of the plane, my physicist and I couldn't see much, and could hear even less over the jet roar, so we just rode it out.  My physicist, ever the cool chap under pressure, unwrapped and ate his Mediterranean Veggie Wrap. 

Ten minutes later, we landed with a quiet thump--and genuine applause--but we were a long time on the tarmac as the plane had to be checked out before being allowed near the terminals. Meanwhile, the seatbelt sign went off and folks flocked to the bathrooms.   Almost immediately the toilets quit flushing. We couldn't avoid knowing this as row 32 was strategically placed at the intersection of the jet engines and the head (not where Catbird likes to sit). Not to be crude, but apparently that landing scared the crap out of a lot of folks.

...so later in the day, when we got restless and itchy waiting for a new plane, grumbling and worrying about the delay, we just reminded ourselves how good it was to be on terra firma, breathing moderately fresh air and how grateful we should always be for landing, once again, wheel-side down.