During the course of the just under 40 years, I spent with SAS, I can say that I met people from all walks of life. From the little drunken Norwegian seaman or the Polish immigrant to movie stars, athletes, heads of state, royalty, you name it. One person remains vividly in my memory. I was invited to a party at a friends home one evening and was introduced to Jack. He, also was in the airline business but was a Captain. We started talking and he was one of, if not the funniest person I have ever met. As we talked, more and more guests were beginning to come over to where we were to listen to some of his stories, which I found out from someone, were actually true stories about him. I want to pass a few on to you in this post and hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
Jack was piloting an Aircraft from San Francisco one nice day. The hostess from first class came into the flight deck just as they were closing the doors and asked if she could bring this lady into the flight deck to visit, explaining that this was the ladies first time flying. After getting Jacks approval, the hostess delivers her passenger " to the jaws of jokesville"
Jack welcomed the lady and introduced her to the first officer. Jack assured the lady that she was about to experience flying with only her in mind and that the aircraft had the latest of safety equipment on board and that the experience of the first officer and himself was more than 50 years. Jack told the lady that at any time during the flight she wished to come back up to visit it was no problem. Flying was compared to sitting in your living room with a nice glass of wine. Now.............as the story goes........Jack also added the fact that every pilot was a specialty pilot and very proficient, his specialty was "TAKE OFF PILOT" and that his first officer was a "LANDING PILOT" a few seconds past by when the first officer, leaned over and told Jack that HE WAS THE TAKE OFF PILOT, and has never landed an airplane, except in training. Now, the ladies eyes were like half dollars listening to these two guys surprisingly both TAKE OFF PILOTS blaming crew scheduling for such a mix up. How could they screw up like this BUT it to late to change things now. We'll just have to go with it and get it straightened out later. They both could see the anguish in the ladies eyes listening to this but still wanting to put her trust into their abilities. They had to call in the HOSTESS to put this lady at ease and that they were only joking. Just to prove it, the hostess said to the lady, "and I guess they told you it was sitting in your living room with a nice glass of wine. It was at that point..........the lady stop climbing the walls of the flight deck. As the hostess was pulling her down, she said to the lady..........." instead of that glass of wine, I'll bring to 2 scotch on the rocks"
On another flight from Chicago to Seattle, Jack and his total crew arrived at the airport. Jack and the other pilot went into the breifing room while some of the cabin attendants went to have a cup of coffee. While having coffee, they saw their aircraft pulling into its assigned gate, hurridly finished their coffee, grabbed their suitcases and proceeded to the gate. After the passenger were boarded and the doors were being closed a hostess entered the flightdeck with a panic look on her face. She told Jack, that in the rush to get to the aircraft, she accidently left her purse handing on the chair in the restaurant with all her I.D's money etc...................meanwhile and unbeknown to her, a restaurant employee had found her bag, rushed it over to the airline counter and turned it in. The purse was immediatly sent down to the ramp area at which point it was taped to a very long pole and passed up the the flight deck through the pilots window...........SSSOOOOO Jack not only knew about this but also had her purse. " should I just give her back her purse or should I have some fun and teach her a lesson" Needless to say Jack simply turned to the paniced girl and said "we're about to start engines and I can't hold that up. When we begin taxiing, I will just call back to dispatch, have them get your purse and they can FAX it to Seattle. A bit of a queried look now blanketed the hostesses face but she put her confidence into Jack. " Can they really do that" "Of course, with the new technology they can do just about anything. Four hours later, they landed in Seattle, Jack taxis his way to the gate informing the ground staff that he has this purse for one of the hostesses and that he will drop it out the window. Just have the ramp guy catch it and run up the stairs and hand it to the hostess when she opens the door. Well done Capt Jack!!!! Instructions noted the ramper is standing by the door and as soon as the door opens, he follows the plan. " I have a purse here for a hostess that left it in the coffee shop in Chicago and they FAXED it over to us. THANK YOU, THANK YOU ......SO MUCH as she starts to go through the purse to see if everything is in place. Noting nothing missing she opened the flightdeck door and says with a happy grin
"OH Capt, thank you so much for your help, my purse was just given to me ..................and everything is in tact"..................the wonders of the new electronic age
