Seven Deadly Sins Meets Domestic Flying
The Seven Deadly Sins have existed since the origins of man kind. And since then, human beings have been guilty of these mortal sins. Everyone has their own personal vice….admittedly, I am a total glutton. Sometimes it’s hard to admit or even recognise your inner vice, but certain edgy situations tend to bring out the roaring sinful demon in each of us. A particular example of these fleeting demons appeared on my gruelling flight back from the States.
The scene is set in Boston, Massachusetts, 4:08 P.M, during which time, the northeast region of the United Sates was experiencing an extreme heat wave, and the outdoor temperature gauge read a whopping 41*. One hundred fifty eight individuals boarded flight 2708 from Boston to San Francisco with an anticipated arrival time of 7:45 P.M. Pacific time. Little did we know what was in store for flight 2708.
The extremity of the heat was already weighing on the passengers as they heavily slumped through the jetway tunnel while boarding. The humidity had such a weighing effect that hindered everyone to a lazily paced snail speed. (SLOTH!) Once everyone had taken their seats, the head stewardess came on the P.A. to announce that there would be a slight delay due to the heat. The vessel needed to cool down before the F.A.A. would send approval for take-off.
This is where the evil notions began to stir among the passengers. People looked sideways at their fellow air travellers as if to say, “I don’t know about YOU, but this is of the utmost inconvenience to ME”. (PRIDE!) A half hour later, the captain spoke up, alerting all passengers that a refuel in Denver was necessary to safely commence the flight. This unfortunately set back our time of arrival in San Francisco to 10 P.M. This is the point at which all hell broke loose—the inner sinful soul of every passenger was awakened. Almost immediately, people began to shout and carry on about their missed connections or evening plans in San Francisco.
An angry crowd began to form in the aisle of the airplane, demanding personal refunds and seeking retribution for their “difficulties”. The heat certainly didn’t help; (over 150 disgruntled people sat trapped in a scorching hot airplane really got the anger fuelling.) An obese man actually got up out of his seat, dripping sweat and red in the face, and threatened to beat up the only male flight attendant. (WRATH!)
The flight across the continental United States does not offer a free meal. Even when the flight runs its usual six hours, this is a difficult concept to grasp. Add on the extra 3 hours delay and 1 hour for fuel stop, and you’ve got yourself a bunch of angry and HUNGRY passengers. There were multiple demands for complimentary tiramisu and wine while flying somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. (GLUTTONY!)
After ten painful hours, we descended in San Francisco. This is when the most angered of flyers rolled up their sleeves and marched over to customer service. I watched in bewilderment as one woman reamed into the customer service representative, provoking her to the point of tears. She insisted on a full refund and an extreme amount of unearned airpoint miles, (GREED!) which she then received….(ENVY!).
As mentioned, although you may not believe that you are capable of exuding any of this sinful behaviour, sometimes it just takes the most stressful of situations to quench it out of you. I’m not sure where lust fell into this series of horrendous human conduct, but I’m sure that in order to blow off steam, someone initiated themselves into the mile high club along the way. So there you have it, the seven deadly sins meet domestic flying. I believe everyone aboard flight 2708 need pay penance by travelling via Auckland public transportation for a few days.