Lost Over the Bermuda Triangle
The captain announced over the PA system mid-flight, "Will the first flight attendant please report to the cockpit?" My brain processed these words into, "There's an emergency, and I'm the one who needs to go to the cockpit." Immediately, before I could feel any emotion stirring within me or think about anything at all, I opened the door to the cockpit and closed the door behind me. The captain turned his face toward me with sweat dripping profusely from his forehead and a frightened expression on his face. With a rattle and choking sound coming from his throat, he stammered, "We're over the Bermuda Triangle, and we've lost radar." My heart jumped into my throat and squeezed out the breath within me for a moment as I tried to respond with a professional decisiveness in acting quickly to his news. All I could think of at that moment was that this was a real emergency, and I had to remain calm.
The weather was alarmingly turbulent from Miami airport to New York that day. The in-flight services were already canceled. All I needed to do was follow my training protocols, which were now instinctively ingrained into my psyche. The passengers were already uncomfortable, hungry, and afraid by this point. The stench in the cabin from the vomiting passengers caused even more passengers to become sick. The flight attendants were already strapped to their jump seats with In-flight manuals ready for any emergency… just in case. The turbulence in the cabin dropped and popped the plane at alarming rates and heights. I could see the worried looks on the crew members' faces as they sat at each door in their stationed areas. However, they didn't know we were over the Bermuda Triangle and lost radar. I didn't have a chance to tell them anything. I heard the historical legends about the Bermuda Triangle sucking up ships and planes never to be seen again. Still, I never believed it was a real thing to be concerned about as a flight attendant. I thought it all to be fake stories for some reason. How could a plane or ship just get lost? The radar! It all made sense to me now.
I was trained to be calm and emotionless in the shocking position I found myself in. My six years of waitressing taught me to hide my emotions even before becoming a flight attendant. When you argue with the chef and then walk into the dining room to serve the food, it's all about the tip. On a Pan Am Boeing 727, it's all about keeping the passengers and my crew from panicking, causing even more complications. I cared about everyone's safety during such an uncertain destiny. We all had to do just one thing: sit and strap in. I sat there, remembering how much I loved my mother and how much she would miss me if I died. I thought about all the good times I had as a teenager, realizing my previous life before Pan Am wasn't so bad after all. I spent the remainder of my time in the air praying for God to save us.
I felt a calm peacefulness embrace me, and then I knew we would be okay. Surprisingly, the plane landed safely on the ground with no damage, and all of us were relieved to arrive alive. Of course, there were a few passengers who could not help themselves to a dose of anger and resentment toward the crew for such a terrible flight. But I didn't care. For the first time, I realized how precious my life was and how grateful I felt to be alive. I never told my crew that we lost radar over the Bermuda Triangle.
Introduction
While writing this book, it is a year after the winds of change across the entire planet began to blow south, and the tides of the waters began to leap forth. Our world is shaken with uncertainty about the future.
It is September of 2021. Civil unrest is breaking out around the earth to regain basic civil freedoms enjoyed by citizens to work or buy and sell goods and services. If we choose not to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, travel becomes limited, and fundamental human rights and privileges are taken away. More lockdowns become emanate as the fall season approaches in the United States. We are all wondering what 2022 will bring to our nation. Present circumstances surrounding a worldwide pandemic are not what this book is about. Instead, it is a 30-year flight into the past. Take a journey with me back in time, before the World Wide Web, cell phones, high-level video games, and social media ruled the day. Back then, life was a little easier, more explorative, and a little more fun and romantic.
In this memoir, I will share my adventures as a young and carefree Pan Am flight attendant who experienced world travel that only a few could ever imagine. Discover the good, the bad, and the ugly truth about what it was like working for the largest airline carrier in the world, Pan Am World Airways.
Your emotions will be stirred to laugh and sometimes move you to tears as you escape for a time into the past. True accounts of my travels abroad will make you feel like you are right there with me experiencing all of it. Travel to exotic places that most people could only dream of, meet world-renown celebrity personalities, in the glamorous and the not so glamorous world of Pan Am.
It brings me great joy to share my memoirs with you from the perspective of an American international flight attendant at the dawn of the digital era. The U.S. was about to embark on a paradigm shift into the age of the internet and massive wealth. Power-hungry executives were the elites of the era, flaunting their shameless luxuries to the rest of us. Oh wow, this is still happening today! At times I will go deeper than the surface to share my personal experiences never before shared with anyone, not even my own family and friends.
I changed the names to respect the privacy of all persons mentioned in this book. However, the events, situations, and locations are all truthful accounts.
