Ciao. Like my Italian?
We got back last Friday afternoon from Italy. It was a great trip, but as I mentioned in the past, our departure two weeks ago, the outbound leg of our trip didn't start out too well because the flight was cancelled. One of the many reasons, was a computer software issue, which was discovered while we were number five for take off on the runway. On the runway, we were ready to go!
Now, the good news, we were still on the runway, rubber on the ground, when they became aware of this glitch and not at 35,000 feet somewhere over the ice cold North Atlantic just a little east of Newfoundland.
All was good, no emergencies other than trying to find something to eat at Newark Airport at midnight. This ain't Times Square. That Starbucks pepperoni stuffed bread hit the spot.
I mention this, because of a report I heard on Monday, which was reported from numerous news outlets, "on the recurring issue of passengers delaying emergency plane evacuations by grabbing their carry-on luggage", which highlighted, "elevated injury and fatality risk" this behavior creates. You think?
Long sentence getting all that out, but are you freaking kidding me. This happened on two American Airlines flights, one in July of 2024 and the other happened to be July of 2025. There was video of passengers grabbing their luggage, when in one instance, there was a fire onboard from a laptop battery. My other issue, who took the time to film this documentary?
What is so important in that bag? Yor favorite boxers! I'm sure there is a Walmart somewhere near your landing zone.
Something else about being on a plane. Sitting in that emergency row does have responsibilities, it's not just a 'gimme' you paid for to get the extra legroom! You better be able to move fast, because I ain't grabbing my carry-on and although I would love to run you over, I'll be as courteous as I can and push you in the general direction I am heading to get my ass off that plane. I'll be orderly, though, but I'm getting off along with my loved ones.
Now, if you happen to be sitting next to a Maria on the plane, don't mess with her because she has backups.
Have you seen this commercial from a company called Function, that say's there are 61 million Maria's in the world. Not sure what they are pushing, but I find it quite something that someone actually has taken the time to take a head count on this.
So, I decided to see how many John's there are in this world. Now, keep in mind, when I Googled this, Juan wasn't considered a John, but there were different versions of John, like Jon for an example. I also don't think they are including Mr. Johns, Porto Johns or any fictitious John Doe. The bottom line, at the time I wrote this, there were 5.4 million plain old John's in this world.
What do think, Maria has us John's a little out numbered?
Be safe.
John A Sutich
