…and nothing like sitting on a plane getting ready to take off only to hear the pilot say, “you may have noticed that we have taxied around the runway twice already no need to worry they are just training air traffic controllers tonight”. Oh, yeah that’s comforting to know and happened to me a while back in Chicago but that’s nothing like being on a flight for about 40 minutes only to make a u turn back to the airport because one of the pilots was unqualified to fly. This was on a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York recently. The airline called it a “rostering error” when it learned that the co-pilot had not completed the Virgin Atlantic training protocols and the captain was not a designated trainer and therefore should not have been flying with the co-pilot. Once on the ground, the co-pilot was swapped out for a fully trained and licensed pilot and the flight took off again. It landed two hours and 4 minutes late but better safe than sorry. Reminds me of the time sitting in a plane in Pittsburgh, while waiting to taxi to the runway when the cabin started filling with smoke. Never thought we would be going up in that plane, but we did after they cleared out the smoke and determined the source of the problem. Then there was the time in Atlanta while traveling down the runway picking up speed to take off the pilot hit the brakes and we came to a screeching halt. I forget what the reason was, but it was enough for my heart to jump into my throat while the plane went to the back of the line for a do over. Sure, in each case we were late in getting to our destination but hey, better safe than sorry.