DELTA 272 – Occasional rough patches of air during a flight isn’t uncommon, ask any pilot. However, to Delta pilot Captain Jack Wilson, who just flew from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the turbulence was more pronounced than usual and he had only Anesthesia to blame.
“I don’t know why but I have a gut feeling Anesthesia was behind this,” said Wilson, who apologized to Delta passengers about the bumpy ride before going on a 30-minute tirade about the ills associated with healthcare’s most blamed profession. “I hear my medical friends complain about them all the time, so I got to thinking, maybe they’re behind a host of other problems as well.”
Over the years, Wilson and other pilots have noted that when in-flight emergencies are called, the first thing volunteering health care professionals mouth to themselves or towards flight attendants is “F**king Anesthesia.”
“I must have heard that phrase a good 40, 50 times by now, and that’s probably the reason why I consider Anesthesia an enemy, I’ve heard so many bad things about them,” Wilson continued to understandably lament. “I know they’re behind turbulence, I just know it.”
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has one leading theory as to Anesthesia’s cause of turbulence: drapes. It is no secret that Anesthesia likes unwrinkled drapes, and perhaps one way to achieve that is to violently flap the sheets in the wind. That might, just might cause enough disturbance to ruin the atmosphere for pilots and their passengers.
Shortly after landing, Wilson, his co-pilot, crew, and passengers proceeded home where they all proceeded to file complaints with the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
