This morning I talked to the BBC radio interviewer, from BBC Berkshire. He asked me about how Americans in general seem to be more jumpy about terrorism than Europeans, after 9/11 (I didn't mention that 30% of Americans don't even know which year it occurred) and I responded, "Yes, it's true, and I've always made fun of them for being such Chicken Littles. My attitude's a bit different today." (Not really; I still think some fears are silly and overblown. But we were not meant to fly, I've always maintained.)
He also had my daughter on the line, who'd just landed in Chicago a couple of hours earlier. She told him about the queues at Heathrow, and about the flight full of tired cranky passengers. After waiting more than 8 hours to board and then sit on the runway, they were in no mood for an over 8 hour flight.
It was fun, sharing quality mother-daughter time on the air.
And nice to hear her voice this morning, having gone to bed not knowing if she was still at H'row or winging her way across the Atlantic. I was up until late last night, watching the live departure boards from Heathrow. They listed her flight as "taxied" instead of airborne, so I tried to stay up until I knew it had left. Turned out they were wrong; the flight had taken off after a little more than 3 hours on the runway, during which time the FBI was checking each name individually. Guess there weren't any suspicious folks on board.
There was apparently a moment of near-levity onboard when they passed out landing cards, but of course no one had a pen. Finally the attendants found some pens and they passed them around, but my daughter kept hers to amuse herself. Selfish kid.
She also reported that some passengers were able to buy reading material once they got past security, but there was a sign saying no one from American Airlines could purchase anything, so she obeyed the rules. I'm sure in the future things will be sorted out, and passengers will have access to reading material and other amusements on the flights. Sounds like they're primarily worried about beverages and triggers such as MP3s and phones. I'm afraid our days of flying with mobile phones and iPods are gone.
Airlines will no doubt become better at amusing passengers during flights, which will increase ticket prices. No problem; we need to fly less and more safely.
On another note, I hear this morning that 19 of the suspects have had their assets frozen. So the bloody Bank of England allowed them to open bank accounts, but not me. I guess fame isn't all it's cracked up to be.
UPDATE: Oh, and one more funny moment: Last night my husband was explaining how if they sat on the runway for too long they'd be low on fuel, and have to refuel before crossing the Atlantic. I told him to stop giving me things to worry about. He laughed and pointed to the TV: there was an advert on for the movie Snakes on a Plane.
