Wet & Warm @ Florida Fat Farm after Harrowing Flight

One of the boons of my existence is a sister in Florida, who this year gifted me a ticket to what I like to call her “Fat Farm,” a gated community with a pool and a large exercise facility. Full of contraptions that look like torture devices. Well, I suppose it depends on whether you regard exercise as a natural high or torture!

Getting here was variations of the latter: That big storm that bedeviled Atlanta earlier in the week, moved southeast over Florida and fogged in the Podunk airport, where the flight was supposed to land. With no instruments, the pilot couldn't see the runway, but descended anyway, deployed the landing gear and when, I presume, the altimeter told him we were getting too low, he aborted the landing, pulled up, banked and flew back to Tampa/St. Petersburg.

We were informed we were running out of fuel, so would land and give it another try. Quickly, the stewardesses passed through the cabin with a legal handout disavowing any airline responsibility for deposits on rental cars, hotel rooms, etc.

On the ground we taxied to a gate, were told the weather wasn't getting any better, and buses would arrive within the hour to take us back to Podunk, where most of the passengers had friends or family (me, the brother-in-law) picking them up—a 2-hour drive.

We were shuttled down to baggage claim, a few managed to rent cars, but they quickly ran out. Checked luggage appeared and after about an hour another flight arrived from Bangor, Maine. The vending machines ran out of change and various items. The airline staff evaporated and, though most people had left in the morning, not a bottle of water nor a scrap of fruit appeared, though here were seniors possibly diabetic or hypoglycemic and one using a walker.

Around 9:30 p.m. six buses arrived, but the one I boarded had a governor on the heat and would only blow cold air. Fellow passengers rustled up a blanket for an older woman who was dressed for Florida and may nevertheless have pneumonia by this time.

Critical Eye got out her computer. Didn't take long to see who benefits handsomely from flagrant disregard of passenger health and safety—Allegiant Air stockholders. Both in 2012 and 2013 they received bonus benies of $2 and $2.25. This is how the U.S. gov't Federal Aviation Admin protects us!