®THE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE
When a noise caught your attention, and you looked up in the sky, was it an airplane? Ever ridden in an airplane? Who makes the airplanes look good?
Lets take a ride on an big airplane, and talk about the people that help you and your family to get from one airport to another.
You arrive at the airport. Where you give that heavy suitcase to a person behind the counter, and it disappear into the building. Not to be seen again until you pick it up at the end of your trip, if you’re lucky. If you do not have a ticket, when you arrive at the airport, then this is the time that you pick it up. If you do have the ticket, then the Ticket agent checks it over, and tells the computer that you have arrived for your flight.
You then go forever through the airport, with lots of other people, until you come to an arch in the middle of the hallway. Security. Now you have to empty your pockets into a little bucket. Place your small bag or purse on a belt, which disappears into the mouth of a hungry looking machine. Now you have to walk through that arch, and that hot wheels car, that you forgot was in your back pocket, sets off the alarm. You have to go back and give it to the person to put with the rest of your good stuff. Then walk through again. No alarms. On the other side, you find that the machine did not eat your bag, and has spit it out onto a little chute. Now you can collect your goodies, and continue your journey.
Finally you come the end of the airport, and there are more counter people dressed like the person who gave you the ticket. Boarding personnel. You wait in another line so that they can check your ticket, and give you a seat number on the airplane. While you wait to be let on to the airplane, you go over to the window to take a look at the noisy thing that you have seen from your backyard. It’s BIG. It looks bigger than your car and maybe even than your house. You think, “How does it EVER get off the ground, and stay in the air?” It’s long, fat, tall, and shinny. The wings look to thin to do what ever it is that they do, and the engines look like they might fall off, if it was to hit a bump before getting into the air. The people wandering all around it and in it, look small compared to the plane. The folks wandering around the plane are The Baggage Handlers and the line Service Personal.
Now it is time to board the plane. A smiling Steward or Stewardess greats you at the door, and points you in the direction of your seat. As you enter, and if you’re lucky, the door to the cockpit is open and you will see the Pilot and Co-pilot. Siting behind a panel that looks confusing, with all the instruments and different colored light. The door or doors gets closed and the plane starts to make some noises, thumps and bumps and the engines start to rumble and whine to life. Then with a slight jerk, the plane starts to move backwards, from the terminal, as you watch out t the window.
As the plane rolls down the runway, it feels like it is going to flip onto its back, as the front end climbs into the air. You look out the window and the ground is quickly dropping away and you are now in the air.
We have heard that their are people talking to the pilot and these people are the Air Traffic Controllers. Keeping a watch on the plane as it flies from one airport to another. Their job is another story.
So who have we forgotten? How about the men and women working in the middle of the night, sometimes long hours. Working on crews around the clock, to make sure that the airplane you ride in, can work as designed. That it will be safe, comfortable, and that the pilot will have no problems. The Airplane Mechanics. The people that turn wrenches and screwdrivers. Changes the tires. Checks the nuts and bolts, that hold everything together. Without the mechanics the pilots would not have anything to fly. And if something goes wrong with the plane, the pilots bring it to the mechanic and says “fix it.” then walks away. So that he can fly it another day. The mechanic then has to work hard and long to make the pilot look good. His work lets the planes get off the ground on time, and that makes the airlines look good. With the planes coming and going on time, that makes the airport look good. Yet, the greasy, sweaty, dirty mechanic hears very little of this praise. The mechanic goes home, cleans up, enjoys life with the family, knowing that they are the backbone of a well running system and that they are the best.
