We had the ATA mafia at Omni. They all were fantastic guys and had to some pretty crazy stories.
Yes there were some crazy stories over the years.
Did a sub service for Air Afrique, along with other humanitarian flights in Africa. Some of those people had never seen a plane, let alone rode in one. They literally started cooking in the aisle (yes with fire). When that aircraft came back to the US, the agricultural department basically said it would be cheaper to just burn the interior versus trying to clean it.
Did a flight to foreign country military installation, and all the crew received was a hand written diagram of about half the airport and a frequency. Basically you will land on this runway, you will turn off on this taxiway, and call this freq about an hour out. The crew was not happy but that was all the information the state department could give - other than for performance data
Flew into Bishkek before the rest of the world even knew there was such a place.
A lot of times our crews would carry mid to high six figures in cash for "handling fees" in certain areas of the world.
Sent a 757 down to South America to start a 2 month sub service for Aero Peru. Got final FAA approval about the time the flight landed in Lima.
A lot of time if it was foggy, we'd have an L1011 do a miss to blow the fog away from the RVR equipment so our other flt behind him could land.
I learned how to speak "HF garbled" with Stockholm Radio.
A lot of places we went, barely had any phone service. The flight would land and the crews would forget to call company with arrival info (no acars) and the company would be trying and trying to figure out if they actually arrived. I'd always say, CNN hasn't called so pretty good chance the flight is safely on the ground.
I believe ATA was one of the first to get POLAR operations approved.
Ferrying a L1011 between IND and FRA. (Cruise M86) - flight got into a 200+ kt jet stream, reported doing 805 across the ground.
I swear this company ferried airplanes just to ferry airplanes.
Had a 727 pop and engine coming out of MDW, some home owner lost a few bricks off his chimney when the mains left some rubber.
Our 727 with -17 engines had a MTOW of 195.0, 9.0 lbs/hr. Now the Boeing MAX9 has roughly the same TOW but about 4.5 lbs/hr.
First time I stepped into the 757-300 at the L2 door (all economy seating) and looked down the aisle. I couldn't see the back of the aircraft. It was like it never ended. Of course sitting way back there and looking forward you could see the rear of the aircraft twist and turn in flight.
Performance wise, the -300's SUCKED!!!
A ferry flight landed in IND (727), and a rear galley cart had come loose and flew down the aisle and crashed into the cockpit door. Crew had to do a pants change before getting off the aircraft. What was found amazing is the cart didn't hit a single seat on its way to the cockpit door. So basically it was traveling around 140kts when it hit the door.
We did the military channel mission between PHL and Diego Garcia (FJDG) roundtrip via Lakenheath, Rhein-Main, Naples, Signoella, Bahrain.
3 of the L1011 came from LTU, were called Red Racer.
We had 1 L1011 that was just plain white, no markings. It was used for special charters, mainly what we referred to as Around the World. It was set up with 88 sleeper sofa in the front and 2 lounges/bars in the aft. These trips were set up by whatever tour operator wanted. It usually was for a month, and it would fly around the world. Passangers would pay 50K for this trip, and it was all first class accommodations where ever they would fly. So they had the same crew and aircraft for the whole month. The crews loved this as they do things like, arrive in Sydney and 7 days later they would pick them up in Perth. So basically 7 free days in Australia.
Our dispatch 800 number for the crews was 1 digit off from cingular celluar customer service number. Thus we would get a lot of calls by mistake. Eventually we got tired of it and started having fun with them.
Customer: Explains problem and ask if I can help them.
Me: NO
Customer: Why not?
Me: My pizza just arrived and I am hungry.
Customer: What am I suppose to do?
Me: Change carriers, I don't care.
Customer: My phone is doing this or that.
Me: I apologize, we are having some issues with the revised software that prohibits porn. Please take it back and have them reload version 5 of this software.
Me: Wish I could have been there to hear that conversation. LOL
Sometimes we would have 2 dispatchers get involved
Customer who has been on the phone for awhile
My "supervisor" comes on the line (aka dispatcher #2)
Supv: Is he giving you good service and answering all your questions?
Customer: Yes
Supv: Well he slept with my wife and Im trying to get him fired. (hear laughter in the background from other dispatchers)
Customer: Nothing but crickets and then line goes dead.
And it went downhill from there
Despiiiiiiite all my rage I am still an F O at Skyway 