Decisions

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1230222

As many of you had likely seen, some time ago, there was a high school track race that was stopped by the race official for weather/lightning with one lap remaining. The leader was on pace to break the NJ state record. Needless to say, this was a very contentious call. However, regardless of what was going on during the race, if there was a safety issue, the race should be stopped. Plain and simple.

First off, a huge pat on the back to that official. I found this chain of events to be very similar to what its like being an airline pilot. Many times, you are the last and final safety net. And, making a decision like that is not always an easy thing. It's often greatly unpopular, even with the very people you're trying to keep safe!

Not all decisions are cut and dry and they don't always come down to safety. One of the first flights I ever felt like I had to be a dick on, was a flight to New York. After several rounds of departure delays due to weather and traffic congestion in NY, we finally got a "wheels-up time" from ATC. As ATC loves to do sometimes, after 2 hours of waiting, they called and said, "your wheels up time is in 12 mins!" Thanks for that.

So, we got everyone aboard quickly, ran our checklists, and just when I was about to start engines, the flight attendant informed me that someone wanted to get off the plane. I feared it was something major like a medical emergency or they left the stove on at home, family member was just in a car accident, etc, etc. The FA then said, "They can't find their phone and they think they left it in the gate area and they want to go get it."

No matter what decision was made, it had to be made fast. If we let this person off search for their phone, we were not going to make our wheels up time. This would delay the rest of the passengers at LEAST another 45 mins, likely more.

The choice basically boiled down to having one person upset or 31 people upset. There was no way to please everyone in this instance. If I was a dick to 1 person, then 31 other people could get where they were going and have a chance at making connections.

I like math. 31 is quite a bit larger than 1. It was a pretty easy choice, but still not one that I took lightly. I knew this person was going to be hosed over without their phone. However, they should also have been more careful with not leaving it around in an airport! (and, I also didn't rule out the chance that they in fact DID have their phone buried in they're bag somewhere and just couldn't find it at that moment.)

I elected to not let the passenger off to look for their phone. If we let them off, they wouldn't be getting back on. That was the decision. I did have the FO call station operations on the radio when we got airborne and relay to the station that a passenger lost a cell phone in the gate area of our flight and then we provided the station phone number to the passenger so that arrangements could be made if the phone was recovered.

People make mistakes, I know. I make plenty. However, I would rather this one person have to deal with repercussions for their mistake, rather than screw over 31 others for their mistake. And, there was no guarantee that the phone was in the terminal. All we knew was they couldn't find it at the moment and figured they MIGHT have left it inside. You can't please everyone all the time. And, if you try, you will almost certainly piss off everyone.

So, to the person that lost their phone, I hope you got it back. Better yet, hope you found it in your bag or coat pocket after the flight. I didn't enjoy being a dick in not letting you go back in the terminal and look for your phone, but I did have some other things to consider.