What: The United Express flight 7164, en route from O'Hare bound for South Bend
Where: O'Hare Airport
When: Monday night Dec 15
Who: 28 passengers and 4 crew members
Why: The plane was about to land in South Bend but instead, circled the airport and returned to Chicago because of a landing gear problem. When the plane hit the tarmac, the left wing shot sparks. The belly landing as the plane slid down the runway, half on its belly.
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Yesterday I planned to day trip from South Bend to Dallas. I was
>scheduled on a 6 a.m. flight and was to return sometime around midnight.
>
>
>I knew I didn't have much time in Dallas. I had a couple customers to
>visit and if I worked at it I could pull it off.
>
>
>I arrived at South Bend Airport at 5:00am with my VR equipment ready to
>be carried on. I also brought an already-labeled empty box that I was
>going use at the end of the day to UPS my equipment back to the office.
>
>
>After spending about 45 minutes meticulously packing my virtual reality
>system into a single carry on bag, the South Bend TSA agent decided she
>was going to unpack the entire bag, string it out on the table and scan
>each piece. Of course she was a bitch about it. When she was done she
>told me I had to re-pack the bag myself. At 5:30 am, my blood pressure
>was already going up and I almost missed my flight because of this bitch.
>
>
>5 hours later, I got to Dallas knowing that I had to get cracking if I
>wanted to make it back to the airport by 4:30. I needed to pick up the
>box that I was going to use for the UPS shipment so I headed off to
>baggage claim. I waited for my empty box for about a half hour only to
>realize that Delta lost it. Now my blood pressure was back up and I
>couldn't find an agent to bitch at! Bitching always gets my BP back down.
>
>
>Next, I headed off to the rental car building and find out that I had to
>wait for 15 minutes for the car. Now I'm realizing that it wasn't worth
>the extra $400 bucks I paid to get there an hour and a half earlier.
>
>
>When I finally got my car, it's a hybrid Camry. These things have magic
>keys that know you're around the car. You just show up with the magic
>keys in your pocket, push a button and it goes. I sat in the car pushing
>the “Start” button and every other button I could find and nothing was
>happening!!! Daaammmmit I'm so late. Actually something was happening
>the car was lighting up, everything turned on and the car wouldn't go.
>There's wasn't an employee anywhere to be found. Now I had to run all
>the way back to the counter to get “Big Betty”. She is wearing “Super
>Texas” high heels. She couldn't get it to go either, but right before we
>give up, it somehow began to work..
>
>
>By now I really needed to hurry up and get to the first customer. I
>headed out to the highway and my GPS was all scrambled. I end up driving
>around a Dallas Cloverleaf about six times waiting for it to synchronize
>to a satellite.
>
>
>I finally saw the first customer and then headed off to Lockheed Martin.
>If you don't know anything about the Fort Worth Lockheed facility, let
>me tell you, it's pretty amazing. There were “Joint Strike” fighter jets
>flying around F-22 Raptors and F-15 Eagles. They were taking off from
>Lockheed's private airfield. This was one of the most impressive things
>I've ever seen.
>
>Lockheed's lobby has a 150” inch, super plasma HDTV with footage of
>their fighter jets and a big “Lockheed welcomes Joseph Ackerman , CEO of
>Elbit systems” message overlaid on the super monitor.
>
>“It must be pretty impressive to be recognized by a company like this” I
>mumbled to myself.
>
>
>I started charming the 60-year-old, nice-looking receptionist and asked
>her “why is my name not up on the big screen? I'm the most important
>visitor you'll have all day”. Before I left she changed the message to
>include my name and took Elbit's CEOs name off. My name stayed there for
>the rest of the day. How cool is that!!!!
>
>
>I had a nice time in the virtual reality Lab but it was getting to be
>4:30 and I was still at Lockheed. I had a six o'clock flight to catch
>and I needed to print my label, find a new box and pack my system so I
>could deliver it to the UPS store on my way to the airport. The Lockheed
>people helped me with the box and the label, I got to the UPS store and
>headed off to the airport in the wrong direction!!! My GPS was screwed
>up again!!!! God I'm gonna be so late, again!
>
>
>By now I've got an hour and 20 minutes to get to the airport, drop-off
>my car, check-in, get probed by TSA and catch my flight. I'll never make
>it...
>
>
>I finally arrive at the rental car return get on the bus back to the
>terminal only to be dropped off at the wrong terminal. I ran inside,
>asked directions, went back outside, hopped back on the bus and made it
>to the correct terminal where I found out that I was being rerouted on
>another airline and I could make it if I really hurry. I ran back
>outside, got on the bus again, got dropped off at another terminal,
>grabbed my ticket and went to the security line. Again the TSA agents
>gave me a hard time. This time they scanned everything in my bag with
>the little white bomb thingies. He started scanning my GPS screen then
>he scanned my suction cup. He was scanning the keys on my computer, my
>USB cable. What a moron! I'm gonna miss this flight, I just know it...
>
>
>I finally get on the plane only to land at O'Hare Airport Terminal “F”
>and there's another plane at our gate. We sat there for eight precious
>minutes. By the time we got to the gate I had 15 minutes to deplane and
>to make it on the South Bend flight.
>
>
>I needed to go all the way from F terminal to C terminal. Most of the
>passengers from Dalls to Chicago already missed their connections and
>were spending the night in Chicago. But I'm wasn't going to spend the
>night Chicago. So I got off the plane, and ran towards gate C-4 in my
>business clothes, carrying a suitcase, a backpack and a bad attitude!
>
>
>11 minutes later I was still hauling ass towards the gate. All the while
>thinking “its gate C4 at least it's at the beginning of the concourse
>I'll probably make it”. I got to the top of the escalators only to see
>that the first gate was C- 27. “great who decided to put C4 at the end
>of the terminal” Jackass!! I kept running. By then I could hear that
>there was someone else running behind me. A pilot who was trying to jump
>seat fly back to South Bend.
>
>
>We both got to the gate at the same time to find that the jet was still
>at the gate. “Great we made it” I thought to myself. All we need to do
>is have the agent called down to the captain and he'll let us on. But
>this agent wasn't having it. Oh helllll no!! He had to be a big Prick!
>He wasn't going to call down to the gate nor was he going to lift a
>finger for either one of us.
>
>
>We were both completely out of breath, huffing and puffing like
>none-other as we headed back over to the windows. We started pounding
>and flapping our arms in hopes that the Captain would look up & see us.
>The off-duty pilot was crouched down at floor level giving the “hey I'm
>over here” two-handed wave. I grabbed on to the sunshade and started
>waving it back and forth like I was sending an SOS message to Sputnik.
>The Captain never looked up to see us He backed the plane out and headed
>off. “What rotten luck”I think to myself. “I'm sick of this”.
>
>
>Now it was about 10:00pm I turned to the pilot and said “I'm thinking
>about getting a car and driving back to South Bend”. He said “alright,
>I'm in”. By midnight we had a car and drove it back to South Bend where
>we picked up our cars at about 2:00am.
>
>
>Freezing to death, we both pulled up to the ticket taker gatehouse, the
>pilot got through right away. When I got up there the agent asked “how
>did you get here?”.
>
>I told him “we drove” then I asked “why ya open so late?”. He told me
>that they were still waiting on a flight to come in. I knew better than
>this because this airport closes at about midnight. There was no way a
>flight was coming in at 2:00 in the morning or later. Why is this
>jackass messing with me? I thought.
>
>
>Then the agent proceeded to tell me that his story really is true. He
>was waiting for a flight. Then he asked me “what flight were you on”.
>
>“Seven something” I replied.
>
>“7164?” he said.
>
>“ Yea that's it why?” I responded
>
>Wide eyed and emphatically the agent says “That flight was just here.
>The landing gear was stuck, he had to turn back around, go to Chicago
>and crash land on the belly!”.
>
>
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