If you Google “Churchill, Manitoba hotels” you’ll get a pretty good idea of what to expect. The most prominent listings are for the Polar Inn, the Iceberg Inn, and the Tundra Inn. And if you’ve ever heard of Churchill, it’s likely because of the polar bears.
It’s that place where you can get on those buses with big fat tires and polar bears walk right up to the bus. That way you can put your life in the hands of whoever made and installed the window between you and one of the world’s most terrifying apex predators.
This little geography lesson and tourism plug comes at the expense of a planeload of Southwest passengers who ended up in Atlanta for a few hours because of the unusual behavior of a passenger. For me, it would likely have been Churchill.
I was headed to Austria, via Frankfurt, from Vancouver for the unveiling of the new Rotax 912 iS fuel-injected engine. Stuffed somewhere in the very middle of the cavernous wide-body cabin, I was settling in for eight or nine hours of movies, perhaps catching up on some work and, as I recall, some relatively tasty food, when out of one of his pockets my seatmate produced a slim cylinder that tapered to an obvious mouthpiece. Smoking substitutes using nicotine-laced liquids that taste like fruit were just being introduced, and our fellow passenger was a trendsetter.
The second he stuck the thing in his mouth with an arrogant flourish I knew we could be in trouble. Within seconds, a flight attendant spotted him and streaked down the aisle to tell him, politely but firmly, that smoking and smoking substitutes were strictly forbidden. But, he protested, there is no smoke, no flame, no odor, and no danger. Nevertheless, she replied, it looks like smoking and the rule is enforced that way so there can be no loopholes that give ideas to other passengers.
Well, our modern young man decided that this is the hill he wanted to die on so he started in about how dumb and illogical that thinking was and why should he blah, blah, blah. She didn’t hear a word of it. The last page of her playbook had been the polite explanation, and it was time to put some brass in the airline’s argument.
A few minutes later the captain strode purposefully down the aisle, coat buttoned and all four stripes gleaming. He instantly sized up this whiny little twerp. After three sentences that I didn’t understand I saw all the color leave our principled young man’s face as he surrendered his pipe or whatever it was and plugged in his headphones. He never said another word.
A little later I saw the captain again. This time, he was hanging out with me and some of the other passengers taking advantage of a charming tradition that also raises a few bucks for the airline. Flight attendants roll a drink cart in front of the rear galley door to form an impromptu stand-up bar where those inclined can mix with like-minded passengers in a little foyer that is formed in that busy area.
The captain, who was retiring in a few more months, recognized me from his previous exertion of the absolute authority he held on that aluminum tube hurtling over the Arctic. I, sipping a delicious beer I’d never heard of, introduced myself and my professional reasons for being there. He, knocking back a Perrier, told me about getting his float rating on Vancouver Island and his retirement plans that included a 180 on floats.
I asked him about our junior human rights expert with the vape, and he made it clear the fate of the guy and the rest of us hung on his suitable display of panic and regret when read the Riot Act. He didn’t come right out and say it, but it was clear we would have been headed somewhere other than Frankfurt if the 20-something in pointy shoes had so much as uttered a word of disagreement. I figured Churchill was the most likely diversion airport.
You see, along with the bus companies and what I’m told is a first-rate museum on indigenous culture and the natural history of Hudson Bay, there is also a 9,100 x 200 asphalt runway that was built by the U.S. Army Air Force as a refueling stop for ferrying aircraft to Europe during the Second World War. It was also a Strategic Air Command base before Transport Canada took over its operation to serve a few Dash-8s and Beech 1900s that connect Churchill with the outside world. It’s also a handy stop for the occasional Boeing or Airbus that needs to land while going between Europe and North America.
Quite rightly, airline captains view keeping order onboard as a top priority, so I get why the Southwest crew headed to Atlanta the other night when a passenger said his prayers for hours on end with a chiming phone as accompaniment. Do I wish the circumstances didn’t fit a horrible stereotype? Of course. And I also wish one of the pilots had paid a visit to the fellow at the center of the drama to see if the diversion could have been avoided. In the end, there was no real harm done.
Given the state of affairs in the world these days, I would suggest there was perhaps a little more tension on that flight deck, as there is everywhere. Pilots in Europe and Asia who fly to the Middle East are reminding their airlines that they’re not trained to share airspace with missiles and drones.
We’ve been told that the domestic threat level is higher because of what’s going on in the Middle East, and that was probably reflected in the clearing of Kansas City Airport and the stashing of aircraft on the taxiways because of what sounded like a routine bomb scare. I can’t recall an airport being completely evacuated like that for any reason.
So, passengers have a role to play in helping to ensure that things go smoothly in these difficult times. By all means if you see something, say something, but for the most part STFU and be nice and you’ll greatly improve your chances of getting where you’re going. You can only control your own behavior, however, so it might be an idea to pack a little extra in case you have a stop along the way.
As for our fashionable nicotine addict, I didn’t have the nerve to ask the captain what he’d said in so few words to the kid that allowed him to decide against a side trip to Churchill. I can only hope it had something to do with polar bears.
Amen brother, we all need to support the common good while confined in the flying tube. I’ve been to Churchill, our 6wd vehicle broke down on a polar bear tour, we had to -walk- a few miles on the muskeg to catch a replacement rig, all the while guarded by our driver with a 12ga loaded with slugs. No bears encountered, thankfully for them and for us.
Dang, Russ – here I am sitting, tears flowing because you did it again. This time – I promise – I’ll send you the bill from my therapist.
Seriously thought someone tossed the imbecile out of the aircraft to provide a tasty snack to some free- roaming polar bears.
On to the other article about the onboard praying, in hopes for a better end of story.
“Be nice” should be the standard, not just during “tense times.”
>And I also wish one of the pilots had paid a visit to the fellow at the center of the drama to see if the diversion could have been avoided.
Negative, sir. Fact of the matter is that the guy was chanting in tongues, his phone was going off, passengers were clearly uncomfortable with it, and the crew had to make what they felt was a time & safety-critical decision. They did the right thing.
The time for looking the other way because you don’t want to offend somebody is over. It’s really too bad your generation refuses to understand this basic fact, especially after all have been through the last five or so years.
>The time for looking the other way because you don’t want to offend somebody is over. It’s really too bad your generation refuses to understand this basic fact, especially after all have been through the last five or so years.
GL, I don’t understand why you felt the need to add this at the end of your post. I’m not sure which generation you’re from, but no matter. It was disrespectful and unnecessary, IMO. I agree with the other part of your post.
Speaking a foreign language is not “chanting in tongues”.
Unless you were on the airplane, you don’t know what the guy was doing – and indeed NONE of us do.It could be that the guy was speaking softly OR it could be that he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Media reports will be filtered through the lens of Americans who are being led into war while immigrants are being demonized; you cannot expect nuance or accuracy – so its ridiculuous to come to a conclusion about whether the guy was a legit threat or not.
Maybe he was acting crazy; OR maybe there was a paranoid passenger who thinks that any non-Christian is a threat. We don’t know if he was asked to stop. We don’t know if someone (either a passenger or a crew member) jumped to dark conclusions.
Did the praying individual exercise poor judgment by having their phone making noise? Sure, but I see people use their speakerphone in public all the time; bad judgement on phone use is not limited to any culture or religion!
Always good to be polite & courteous to your fellow travelers, the crew & airport staff. Getting belligerent solves nothing.
But, as always, be vigilant. If you see something, say something.
The other option is to just drive or take a boat. I refuse the violation of my 4th amendment rights in the terminal before I ever get on a metal tube.
FYI, airline pilots today are taught, in the event of a disruptive passenger, to lock the flight deck door and stay in the flight deck. Flight attendants are trained and experienced at dealing with passengers of all sorts. Pilots are trained and experienced at dealing with aircraft issues of all sorts. You don’t want your FAs flying the plane or pilots dealing with bad passengers. If a pilot opens the secure flight deck door, it introduces an opportunity for a breach of the flight deck, perhaps from another passenger from the one causing the distraction. If the captain wants to talk to the passenger, they can either make a PA (as I had to during COVID) or speak to them over the intercom. No need to speak in person and risk another 9/11.
A couple of years ago (COVID times), I remember being on a flight on a major airline to an overseas location when the pilot made an announcement that we were almost past the half-way point – which just happened to be off the FL coast – and that there was a pax in the rear of the aircraft being uncooperative. Those of us up front were completely unaware that there was a problem in the rear. Anyway, the captain craftily wordsmithed a suggestion that the rest of us pax ‘encourage’ the unruly one to straighten up to avoid a diversion. And apparently it worked because the rest of the flight was uneventful.
My apologies to Call me Dave. My previous post, which appears to have been deleted, was ignorant.