MEMBERSHIP STATUS
|
|
|
Almost Landed in Houston
Long before ACARS, we used to call our times to ARINC. We were on final approach to Houston about 3 miles out when I received a SELCAL. It was a chime going off indicating that ARINC wanted us to call in. I was about to ignore it but then realized that I had already done everything that need doing for the time being and had time to answer. I picked up the microphone and asked ARINC what they wanted. They advised me to confirm our destination was San Antonio, as I had given an estimate for Houston when I passed my out and off message to them after taking off from Dallas Ft. Worth. I replied: “Yes, we will be in San Antonio in about 15 minutes, and that I must have misspoke on my original message." That satisfied ARINC, but as I unkeyed the Microphone, I yelled: “Captain – Get out of here.” Understandably, he responded: “What”. I replied: “We’re supposed to be in San Antonio.” That suddenly registered, and he went around advising the tower that we changed our minds and wanted to fly to San Antonio. They said: “Okay”, and gave us a clearance. It was a short uneventful flight to SAT. After gate arrival, the Lead Flight Attendant said that she had heard our PA announcement but now wanted to know what in the hell we were doing. Ironically, since we had not touched down, we had not broken any rules. We filed our own flight plans back then and got this Saturday trip mixed up with the weekday trip we had been flying all month long. Since we had filed for Houston, the Air Traffic Controllers didn’t care. We had the fuel for San Antonio and Houston was right on the way. Just hadn’t planned on the little excursion down to the Houston airport.
|
Braniff Airways - B-727 Flight Engineer - Mid 70's
| 1/7/2004
|
|
|
|
|
