I’ve had my share of turbulence, but nothing really to write home about.

My most excitement came when I was on a school trip to Washington when I was about 13. We were coming in to DCA on a NW flight and shortly before touching down we pulled up hard and went around. I was looking out the window and saw a smaller plane (corporate jet size I think) sitting on the end of the runway. Eventually the pilot came on and told us that a plane had pulled onto the wrong runway and was right in our landing path -- that will get a group of middle school kids talking.

I worked myself into a bit of fear going to France when I was 16. It was a year after TWA 800 and during the flight I couldn’t help thinking about the center fuel tank on our Air France 747 and wondering how the fuel vapors were doing. A silly thing to think about, I suppose, but I was young and had an active imagination.

Though it wasn’t on a plane, one of my other scary air travel moments came later on that trip. I was waiting at ORY to fly to BOD (Bordeaux) on Air Inter to meet a family after the school group left. The airport made no sense to me. I don’t remember all of the details but I was first told I couldn’t check in because I was too early and had to wait in the outer lobby. I waited and kept checking with the check in people as my flight time approached. They were helpful, but I was concerned that I was going to miss my flight. Eventually my flight time came and went and they kept telling me to keep waiting. I did and eventually my flight was called and we boarded. This was really the first time I was on my own at an airport in a major city. I knew some French, but wasn’t great and was quite concerned I was going to screw something up. To this day I want to go back to the domestic terminal at ORY and figure out how it is supposed to work.