18 September 2001
Mr. James E. Goodwin
Chairman
United Airlines, Inc.
P.O. Box 60100
Chicago, IL 60666
Dear Mr. Goodwin,
It has been one week since I boarded UAL flight 395, BWI to DEN, on the
morning of Tuesday, 11 September. Our pushback at 8:30 a.m. was uneventful. I
was headed for San Diego.
I know you are busy, but I want to steal just a minute to tell you and the
UAL family just how professionally your flight crew - and more specifically
Captain Dave Bulger, First Officer John Wilbourne, and first class cabin flight
attendant Rae Lapine (spellings?) - handled our unexpected descent and
landing in Indianapolis.
They were terrific, very calm and reassuring, in a sequence of circumstances
that really were beyond imagination prior to last week. Captain Bulger’s landing
at Indy was smooth as silk, and the time we spent in the aircraft waiting to
disembark was managed very well.
Given the events of last Tuesday, and the response of your crew, there is no
airline on earth that I would rather trust with my travel, my business, and my
life. Three cheers for UAL, and for the crew of flight 395!
Respectfully,
GSC
HOME FROM INDY on SEPT. 12
After we got settled in the Indy concourse, some things went well and others
didn’t. I was appalled to find out at several MAJOR car rental counters that the
going rate for a one-way rental from Indy to Baltimore carried a $500 drop-off
fee. I could name names, but YOU know who you are. Don’t expect my business in
the future. Instead, let me say that Dollar came through like gangbusters, with
a no-extra-fee one-way Dodge Intrepid that covered the 610 miles in ten
hours!
Return of checked baggage started out after a long wait as a "one piece, one
customer, one at a time" ordeal of checking IDs, then scanning claim checks,
calling "downstairs," and having each identified bag come up - one at a time -
on the carousel. After awhile, though, a lot of police and K9 types cleared the
remaining baggage and everybody was checked out and cleared to go.
Spent the night at the downtown Courtyard by Marriott, not bad at all, and
made a new friend.
As weird as it sounds to say it, I felt honored to have been in the air and
potentially at risk at the same time that buildings were falling and others were
dying. Although I haven’t been up in the air since, my regular schedule will
soon resume.