How Cold Was It

When I am tempted to complain about cold weather I always remember just how cold it can get. On one trip to South Dakota, a few days before Thanksgiving, bitter cold, and sub-zero temperatures had settled in.  I lived in Colorado at the time so it was a short flight on a small jet.  Despite the cold and snow everyone on board was in a holiday mood and the flight was smooth.

                We landed on schedule and as we got up to leave the pilot’s voice came over the intercom.  He thanked us for flying on behalf of the airline and asked for our patience because there would be a slight delay before we could get off the plane.  Everyone settled down again and waited.  It was snowing and blowing outside so we couldn’t see anything but the lights of the terminal windows.  We had taxied in and the plane was right outside the gate so we didn’t understand the delay.  About 20 minutes later the pilot once again asked for our cooperation, explaining that due to the bitter cold, de-icing would be required for our safety.  Most of us had heard of de-icing a plane before a flight but it seemed strange to do it after.

                There were only two more announcements during the hour and half we sat on the plane. Each time the pilot tried to sound encouraging but sounded more and more as though he was talking through clenched teeth. The holiday moods were fading and the less patient were getting ornery.  No one had cell phones back then so the only information we had, came from the pilots short statements.  Finally the doors were opened and we were hit with a blast of icy wind and snow as we made our way down the metal stairs and into the terminal.  Our equally frustrated friends and family explained that it wasn’t the plane they had to de-ice it was the stairs that we had just walked down.  They couldn’t be rolled up to the plane because they were frozen to the ground under several inches of solid ice.  When the normal de-icing chemicals had not freed them, they went to plan B – blow torches and sledge hammers.  We couldn’t complain about that kind of effort and we were truly thankful to everyone who braved the storm to free us.