ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BETH MACY
SOURCE: BETH MACY
Gloria Christen is a quality assurance specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense. She's a sensible, soft-spoken woman who lives in Roanoke and occasionally travels for her job.
Her one great affliction? Aerophobia.
That's where you taxi toward airports with great trepidation. The idea of hovering miles into the air on a machine maintained by people you have never seen reduces you to puddles - at your feet. You are definitely an infrequent flyer.
Also, Christen once worked for the Federal Aviation Administration. ``I know all the things that can go wrong,'' she says.
She had considered all this when she booked herself and a coworker on a business trip that concluded with an airplane flight from Washington, D.C., to Roanoke two weeks ago. ``I said, `Just this one time,''' she recalled from her comfortable cubbyhole at Roanoke's ITT plant - stationed firmly on the ground.
Paging all soon-to-be travelers:
As you contemplate your summer vacation, strap yourselves in for a ride that's part ``Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' and part ``Airplane II: The Sequel.'' It's the story of United Express Flight 6431.
Assume crash position, please.
12:50 p.m. Flight scheduled to leave Dulles for Roanoke.
12:51: Flight canceled because of mechanical problems. Christen and seven other Roanoke-area people are transferred to a 3:15 flight. The holding pattern begins.
3:15: Second flight canceled because of mechanical problems. One young woman, trying to make a 4:30 Roanoke wedding she's been asked to give a reading for, is reduced to tears.
3:30: A 4 p.m. bus is scheduled to carry the passengers instead. Christen is out of cash - she hadn't planned on eating any more meals out. While she inquires about meal credits at the airline counter, a Roanoke businessman slips a $20 bill into her hand on his way to another flight.
``I said, `I can't take it; they just wrote me a meal check,''' she recalls. ``He said, `You have to take it. Even if you don't use it, you pass it on to somebody else in trouble.'''
4: Bus delayed, because of communication problems. Would-be passengers have to laugh - what else can they do?
5: Bus departs with the seven on board.
5:30: Car accident on Interstate 66 causes hour-long detour.
6: Deep in the bowels of Fauquier County, the bus breaks down. On the road. In a traffic lane. Going uphill. On a blind curve. Passengers break open their third bag of Chee-tos and munch nervously.
A 6-year-old girl, traveling with her mother, sings 17 Barney songs in succession. A junior-high teacher from Nebraska, used to catastrophe, calms everyone down.
6:15: Tow truck dispatched to breakdown scene.
6:30: Tow truck determined to be too small to haul bus. Passengers stand on U.S. 29 for 90 minutes in 90-degree heat - with no water or shade.
8: Second, larger tow truck gets clearance to haul bus, which is hauling passengers, to Warrenton garage. Garage owner allows passengers to phone relatives. New Castle passenger worries about diabetic dog boarding at kennel - and about to run out of insulin; phones neighbors to find insulin at house and drive to kennel.
Christen suddenly knows what it's like to be a cow herded into a cattle car: totally helpless. Also, she regrets not wearing tennis shoes and not packing food ... and water ... and a sleeping bag.
8:30: Second bus departs Warrenton.
Midnight: Passengers of flight 6431 arrive at Roanoke Regional Airport, 12 hours after takeoff time. Travelers hug each other, exchange addresses.
The next day: Christen awakes, heart pounding, to the prospect of yet another business trip, this one to Baltimore.
``I'll drive,'' she vows. ``Even though I know I'll miss an opportunity to get to know another busload of wonderful people.'' She'll take along tennis shoes, food and water, too.
And she won't be leaving home again - ever - without her token of a stranger's kindness: the emergency $20 bill.
In case she runs into a busload of frequent flyers.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Robert Lunsford. color.by CNB