United Arcadia Flight 817
A Joseph Nardone Short Story
Copyright Joseph Nardone 2016
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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There are only six passengers on United Arcadia Flight 817. Such a low number of customers, not unusual for the struggling airline, explains the skeleton crew of four on the vessel. Two pilots, two stewardesses, it could be argued that it is overstaffed.
Not that anyone on the flight has noticed the lack of potential companionship on a short 35-minute flight.
The plane boarded at the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre International Airport. Rather fitting, too, as that airport is nearly usually as empty as the plane is now.
Other excuses could be made for the lack of customers. The flight was scheduled to leave at 11:46 at night, though it didn’t hit its reordered departure time. In fact, it left 10 minutes after midnight – on what became an early Monday morning.
“It is unusual that the company would even have us take flight with such a limited capacity.”
“Well, it’s none of our business if Arcadia cares about losing money. Aren’t you on double-time anyway?”
Merely more of the usual back and forth between Captain Jared Mintz and his usual head steward Jennifer Johnson. The two are often paired, as it is one of the airline’s worst kept secrets. The two are lovers. Have been for years now.
“All passengers accounted for?”
“You mean all six of them and Tracy? Yup.”
“Thanks, Jennifer. If you will, would you grab me a coffee?”
“No problem. And you, John”?
The co-pilot nods his head and Jennifer leaves the cabin. She makes her way to the kitchen area of the plane where she meets Tracy, the other stewardess on duty.
“Jared and John want some coffee before we take off. I’ll take care of that if you don’t mind getting everyone buckled in.”
Tracy, always bitter towards the favoritism she feels Jennifer receives, obliges. She cares not for Jared or John. As far as she is concerned, both of them are so caught up in the ideas of their own self-worth that she couldn’t be bothered giving them the time of day – or even a cup of coffee.
That sort of behavior isn’t all that unusual for Tracy. She only met John, as did the rest of the crew, for the first time this morning. As she attempted to say hello, he seemed preoccupied by something else. This was enough for her to believe he was more concerned with himself than anything else.
It is only supposed to be a 35-minute flight after all. No need to attempt to make friendly plane bedfellows. Really, this lack of comradery and having never worked together before is not uncommon on these sort of short flights.
Before she checks in on the six passengers, Tracy peaks her head out from behind the curtain which somewhat shades the kitchen area, as it is her custom.
She sees all six passengers. Oddly, despite the flight being as empty as Tracy’s ever witnessed, the group isn’t all that far spread throughout the cabin. What she presumes is an old couple taking a trip is only a few rows removed from a young family of four.
“Attention passengers. We are about to take off. Please buckles your seatbelts and prepare for liftoff. We will be leaving momentarily. Our estimated time of arrival is 12:50.”
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“Passengers, you can unbuckle your seatbelts.”
United Arcadia Flight 817 takes off without a hitch. It only takes a few moments before it is a thousand feet in the air with the airport well behind them.
Dark, cloudy, but with no expected weather issues factored to be an issue, Mintz sets the plane to auto-pilot.
“I’m going to get up to stretch my legs.”
“Can’t blame you, Jared. Was warned beforehand you’ve been busy. What’s this… four flights in two days?”
John, a man in his late thirties, sits back to relax. With Jared out of the flight cabin, he has some time to reflect. He wasn’t the only one with a busy last few days. Before teaming with Jared to take the half-dozen passengers to their location, he was on another Arcadia flight.
That one was a bit longer, too. John was tasked to be the co-pilot of United Arcadia Flight 816. A flight that went from St. Lucia to drop off a full plane’s worth of passengers back to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre International Airport.
“Hey, Jenn. Have you noticed something off with John?”
Jennifer looks at her lover, smiles, “Jared, how would I know? I met him a hour ago just as you. Maybe he’s always this intense and reserved. Plus, I mean, Arcadia doubled him up, too. Did you even realize he just got back from St. Lucia with a full manifest?”
With a slight laugh,” Eh. You’re not wrong about him. Guess it could simply be he’s worn thin. Anyway, how is everyone holding up?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me about our whopping six passengers again. They’re fine, I guess. Don’t need to interact with them much since it’s such a short trip. No beverages served or anything. Hell, this flight could have done with Tracy and I.”
“It most certainly could have done without Tracy.” Jared replied. “You see those two over there?”
“The old couple. The two falling asleep next to one another? Yes.”
“That could be us one day.”
As Jared is looking at Jennifer with a look of a man in love, Tracy comes walking, albeit with purpose, toward them.
“Jared… Jared, John said he needs you in the cabin right now.”
Telling that something was wrong with the way Tracy approached him, Jared quickly turned from Jennifer. She grabs a hold of his hand right before it slips away to aid Jared for whatever task awaits him.
Not even done bursting his way through the cabin door, Jared is interrupted by John.
“I don’t know what happened. Everything was fine, then a massive storm front appeared what looked like a few hundred feet away.”
“Why didn’t you go around?”
Looking and acting as if he’s recently been abruptly awoken from a deep sleep, John barely gets out his thoughts. “It was a half-hour flight. Figured the radar was showing an anomaly. We were meant to have clear skies. I was told before takeoff that this would have clear skies.”
Not in a panic, but certainly confused by his co-pilot’s demeanor, Jared turns to Tracy. “Probably nothing. Just to be safe, tell the passengers to buckle-up for the rest of the flight.”
“What’s the radar say?”
“Nothing. We’ll get through this in a minute or two. Just a precaution, is all.”
Tracy does what she is told. She leaves the cabin, shuts the cabin door behind her, is met by Jennifer, who she tells the situation to. Both begin to strap into a seat, but only after taking care of the passengers. All of whom oblige without any concern or question.
In the cockpit, however, the scene is taking on a different spirit. John hasn’t remained aloof. Rather, his emotions have run the gauntlet of sad, bitter, confused, and angry.
“Why did you tell them everything was alright, Jared?”
“Because everything is going to be alright.”
“Storms don’t magically appear. More importantly than that, storms which consume the entire radar screen with no end in sight never appear.”
Not too concerned with his co-pilot’s rants, Jared attempts to contact air traffic control.
“This is United Arcadia Flight 815. We’ve come across an unexpected storm and I think our rad
ar is on the fritz. According to it, this storm has no end.”
Jared says it in almost a giggle. A 35-minute flight, with a co-pilot who has gone to the fringe side of lunacy, while his lover and another steward are taking care of a whopping six people, he thought to himself how patently absurd this entire thing is.
Despite his call, no air traffic controllers respond to his message.
“Were you able to get in touch with air traffic control before we hit the storm?”
Now sweaty, appearing less like a co-pilot and more like a man going through severe withdrawals, John doesn’t answer.
The pilots, with Jared staring at John, sit in the cockpit in silence as the storm has become visible in front of them through the window. Heavy rain begins to pelt the plane as lightning can be scene crashing around it.
Jared attempts to contact air traffic once more, but it is again met with deaf ears.
He then contacts Jennifer through his radio to see how the crew is doing. She explains that panic has set in. That the six passengers are all now sitting together, and that
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