Airplane Quiet

Now I have been flying pretty regularly on airplanes since I was a little kid.  My parents are divorced so all of the major holidays usually meant a couple of trips on an airplane. I have never been uncomfortable or uneasy on planes. But last fall, on a flight home from a shoot in Chicago, the plane I was flying in was struck by lightning as we were in the steepest part of our ascent.  I mean, a canon-blast, blinding flash that filled the cabin, violent shudder, sinking feeling, screaming, this-is-it-i-am-going-to-die moment.  After the strike, the pilot immediately began to level off…but between the ascent and leveling off just felt like falling. It was sheer panic on the plane. There was screaming, wailing, profanity in bizarre combinations. It was one of those strange, surreal moments. It was a really tense hour as we circled Chicago (in the lightning!) while the pilot ran diagnostics to see if we were going to be able to land.  The flight attendants were working their way up and down the aisles passing out as much free alcohol as was wanted (needed). There were quite a few people drinking. As we began our descent back into the same airport we left from, the pilot came over the intercom just a few too many times to assure us “everything is going to be ok and yes, the landing gear is down, we had visual confirmation from the tower.” As we came down, we were instructed to “assume the crash position” and i just ingnored the instructions. If we were going to crash, I at least wanted to be looking out the window. (I always have to watch the nurse give me the shot). The runway was lined with emergency vehicles. Let’s just say, that really isn’t that comforting… We landed smoothly and had to exit the plane, wait for three hours, and get on a different plane to take off in the same storm. Nothing like getting back on the horse, right? All that to say, I have spent quite a bit of time on airplanes the last several months and I have noticed, quite to my disappointment, that I get extremely uncomfortable during take-off and landing.  I grip the arm rests a little too tight, I get a bit squeemish, I tap my foot. I have never been scared, but now I find myself needing some distraction and interestingly enough, I find that “photo-brain” is active enough to take my mind off of any take-off induced jitters.  I just go ahead and disregard the “if it has a switch, put it away” lines and shoot with whatever I have with me. Sometimes its just an iPhone, sometimes its the G10, sometimes its the mk2… Regardless of what I have, if I can focus on “seeing” what is happening outside of my window, I can start to relax. 

A few images from the window, some iPhone, some G10:

In the Air from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

There are times now, as I am looking out the window, that I am struck by the significance of what we are doing. We are miles up in the air hurtling at nearly 700 feet per second. Even though air travel is relatively routine for us, the reality is that I am engaging in an activity that only the smallest fraction of humans have ever been able to do. I am seeing clouds in a way that almost no one has seen them. I am traveling faster than most human beings have ever traveled. I am seeing the earth from an incredibly rare vantage point. It is unbelievable how safe it all is, relative to the magnitude of what is accomplished.  It isn’t that I didn’t know this before, it is just that I didn’t consider it that often. Once, my friend commented, as we were standing on the top of a mountain in Colorado, “you know, you don’t get to see something this beautiful without there being a corresponding risk, a danger, a struggle.” In other words, whether we acknowledge it or not, the stakes are pretty high when we get on those planes and flitz around the globe. If anything, my little incident has made me more thankful for the engineers and the pilots and the mechanics who work so hard to minimize the risk, but also, I find that I am also more acutely aware of the sheer beauty that I get to see out my window…

Now, I make sure that I call my short list of “i love you” people before I take off, then sit back and look at the clouds…