We're all in this together

Inspiration came to me, as it often does, on an airplane. I was recently at an associate's wedding in North Carolina.

On the way back, the flight out of Charlotte was delayed. We had all carefully boarded according to group number then the pilot came out and explained we'd have to wait a bit because of weather in DFW.

Plus, that would give mechanics time to inspect something I do not recall, but I do recall being in favor of them changing whichever part might help ensure we we reach Texas alive.

He then suggested a hand for flight attendants, saying Flight Attendant Appreciation Day was coming up, but "every day is Flight Attendant Appreciation Day... but let's get you guys some cocktails while we wait," leaning in to find out what folks in the first row would like to drink.

I realized this would be another flight to catalog. Shortly after we got a round of drinks, we found out we'd have to wait so long, we'd have to de-plane.

But, we were assured, we could take our drinks back into the airport. Our captain also said he's on Team Get Out of Charlotte Soon, too, because if the delay was too long, crew members were running out of hours.

We all milled around near the gate, and sure enough, we were able to get back on the plane shortly. Once again, we all carefully boarded by group number, leading me to wonder how gate agents listen to the sound of the boarding pass beep all day.

Do they ever hear a beep in their dream and wake up saying, "Sir, this is the flight to O'Hare."

When they're at the grocery store and hear the beep at check-out, do they ever tell the celery they've only started boarding Groups One through Four?

To get me to stop thinking incessantly about the demands of working at an airport gate, we started flying around in circles above some clouds.

"We must be lining up for the runway at DFW," I thought to myself, pleasantly surprised that three hours had passed so quickly.

In fact, DFW had called another ground stop, and we were circling above Little Rock. We landed there with, approximately, every other American Airlines flight in the history of DFW as its hub.

The pilot came out of the cockpit and explained the situation. Planes were lining up, and Little Rock didn't have many gates, so we were lucky to even get that far. But in a Planes, Trains and Automobiles situation, he said everyone who works gates at Little Rock had gone home, so if we got off the plane, we wouldn't be possibly stuck there for the night, we were stuck in Little Rock.

Almost all of us came together. One woman yelled, "Sorry, no." People sitting around her convinced her to sit down.

The pilot stayed and answered our questions.

I often write about how a reporter asks. You can hear me ask, even outside of the ground stop, if the forecast was likely to cause more problems getting into DFW. But another passenger had the more urgent query: Could they get some liquor in coach while we were waiting?

He turned around and looked at the flight attendant who was shaking her head, "no." At the end, you hear him say, "I'm working on it."

During this trip, more than a hundred of us had to board, unboard then de-unboard a flight; the captain had to fly us to Little Rock, come back and run a Q&A session about the intracacies of air traffic control and airplane liquor policies, then fly us on to DFW.

A new crew flight attendants had to give the same seat belt and life vest speech to the same audience that had heard it a couple hours before. Plus, I wonder how often Little Rock happens to have a spare American Airlines crew just hangin' out.

We got back to DFW safely, though. Perhaps we were a few hours late, but let this case show how, when we all work together, we can reach a common goal.