By Vincent Safuto staff writer
June 1, 2003
Arecent article in The Wall Street Journal detailed the tale of the flying horse.
No, this wasn't Pegasus, the winged equine of Greek mythology, but a two-foot-high "seeing-eye" horse flying on American Airlines with its owner.
The owner was going to be on "Oprah Winfrey" and, in the airlines' new push to be cooperative with passengers (read: financial desperation), they allowed the animal into the first-class cabin.
Reports are that the horse behaved well, except for its minor "accident" just before landing. There was discussion about whether the animal should have been diapered, but even though a crew did have to do some major cleaning of the seat, the horse was allowed on the return flight in which, presumably, there was no incident worthy of reporting.
I had wondered if maybe someone could have taken the horse to the airplane's toilet, but then I remembered that airline johns are difficult enough for humans to use. I flew once on a 737 whose lavatory was so tiny that I could not turn around inside but had to exit and then back in so I could use it.
It's a far cry from the golden age of aviation. I remember my first flight on a 747 from New York to Los Angeles, and the young girl who, faced with a whole array of bathrooms in the tail of the aircraft, asked me, "Which one is the ladies' room?"
I suppose that someday airlines will start charging to use the bathroom in an effort to raise revenue.
The new rules allow people to bring animals aboard even if they're there for "emotional stability."
I once joked about bringing my cats with me on my next flight to New York, but my mother said that while I was welcome at the "Hotel Mom," the "grandcats," Mikasa and Tommy, were not. Oh well.
The flights when nothing happened are never remembered, I have found, but we always remember those flights where something wasn't right, like that first 747 flight of mine, which ended when the plane blew all its main landing gear tires on touchdown in L.A.
Or the one I took to New York in which a child in the row behind me screamed for most of the flight, collapsed into sleep in exhaustion, and awoke just before landing to resume her screaming.
I don't think any small animal can even approach the chaos I witnessed on one flight, the return from New York after the "screamer," in which children were running up and down the aisles of the plane while it was on final approach, with gear and flaps down.
The understaffed cabin crew had its hands full and failed to make the usual check to see that we were all buckled in, with seatbacks and tray tables in their full upright position. Fortunately, we landed safely and no one was hurt.
Truth to tell, if I had to choose between children running wild on a flight and flying with a horse, even with the potential for a smelly "accident," I think I'd take the horse for my emotional stability.
Vincent F. Safuto is a copy editor for the Press Journal. Reach him at (Vincent.Safuto@scripps.com).
--------
