Thank You, Tulsa!

You never know what setback is going to work out in your favor.

On a recent flight I sat down in seat A next to the window (I always prefer a window seat because it gives me the chance to see the world from a different perspective) and began gazing out at the plane at the next gate and the ground crew scurrying about doing whatever it is that has to be done to get us off the ground.  While passengers were still boarding a maintenance guy caught my eye.  I know he was a maintenance guy because it said so on his shirt.  He made several trips back and forth to his truck retrieving different things and then disappearing underneath me again.  I didn't think much of it.

In the meantime myself and the rest of my new best friends in the aluminum tube began to notice that it was time to go, but we were not going.  After a short wait we were told that a connecting inbound flight was delayed and we were waiting for it to arrive so some of its passengers could join us on our jaunt across the country.  I was headed to Raleigh, NC to work with a church up in Virginia.

Finally the Tulsa girls softball team arrived and boarded.  I know it was a softball team from Tulsa because it said so on their shirts.  They had no sooner sat down when the pilot made an announcement that due to a mechanical issue he was taking our plane out of service.  Mechanical issue?  Apparently while waiting for the Tulsa girls softball team an observant maintenance guy noticed some hydraulic fluid on our landing gear.  He cleaned it up with the spray and paper towels I saw him get out of his truck and revealed that it was indeed an active leak.  He didn't just decide it would be OK though he went up to the cockpit and had the pilot come check it out.  The pilot in turn made a decision that he knew would not make his customers happy at first because people usually react before they think.  That wasn't the case for one passenger though.  He examined the circumstances and the potential outcomes and exclaimed the only reasonable and jovial conclusion - "Tulsa saved our lives! Thank you, Tulsa!"

So the next time you hit one more red light or get a flat or whatever your "Tulsa" may be, remember, your Tulsa may have saved your life.

Thank you, Tulsa.

A.J.