Alright, time for me to tell you some stories.
From 2007 - 2009 I worked for a company that had 2 small private planes.
1 was a King Air 90 and 1 was a Cessna. I would fly approximately once a week to a spot in Northern Alberta. The plane had around 4 vacant seats, not including the co-pilots chair which I would sometimes sit in.
I can't believe I actually had the courage to fly in these planes, but alas, I was young and stupid. One thing that bugged me was that on occasion my co-workers would consume alcohol on the plane and get real rowdy. They would even make fun of our pilot. The man who had our lives in his hands. Didn't think that was cool at all.
The closest I think we came to crashing was when I was riding up in the co-pilots seat one trip. We flew through a major thunder storm in the King Air plane and there was lighting strikes all around us and rain pummelling the windshield. I naturally tend to fall asleep on planes. When I woke up, the turbulence started. I didn't want to experience crashing while I was awake so I fell back asleep. The pilot said the look on my face was priceless when I initially woke and saw my surroundings.
A couple of Christmas's ago, I saw a news story on CBC. A Cessna registered to an alberta company crashed in the pacific ocean. There were no survivors. They mentioned the plane was owned by the company I used to work for. Sure enough, when they showed the file photo of the plane, that was the plane I would fly on, on occasion.
Real Sobering. I am glad no former co-workers or pilots I knew perished in the crash, but I still feel bad for the families of the victims all the same.
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