Tower??? Jesus! I rememeber running jokes of 'who would go if Tower gave
away free tickets?' Not a taker in the house. Not even the cheapest
skate of the bunch! If ever there was a carrier ladened with a crusty
bunch of 747s. Did they have a 'freeway long' list of mechanical
violations that had the FAA on their case almost daily? I actually knew
two people who flew them from JFK-LAX forfeited the return flight coupon
just to buy new tickets on a diff. carrier to get home. It's my
understanding that was reason enuff to create a 'Fear of
Flying'--definitely a case of knowing too much about flying or a
carrier.
On a flight in the caribbean, on AAEagle ATR72..and given the VFR
pockets over certain areas of the caribbean...I'll be honest (though
turbulence to me is like an earthquake ..in a weird way.. I like the
sudden scare) but I was close to sweating bullets flying through all
this soup. All I could think about was one of the 1st seats dwelling on
a divorce or some other life-altering occurence. Don't get me wrong,
commercial airline pilots, I think, are the most august and professional
people on the planet!' But even they, like other humans are entitled to
a bad day.
And to this day..I'd pick the ATR72 soup adventure over a Tower Air 747
to anywhere every time.
greg
Apologies in advance to any Ex-Tower Air employees..but that's my spin!