This is an honor reserved for retiring Captains and aircraft carrying fallen military, firemen and policemen. Former President Bush "41" comes in aboard Continental flights a lot and doesn't even get this particular honor. When the remains of our heros come in, the ramp comes to a stop as the casket comes down the belt loader and is loaded into a special cart that has an American flag airbrushed on the spotless white top....... it never fails to bring out a lot of emotions.
The aircraft is a new 737-900 being taxied in by a friend who was finishing his final flight as a Captain for Continental Airlines. The water cannons are putting out so much water that it's shading the front of the aircraft from the bright 2 o'clock sun. When they taxi in the smaller aircraft, they are only using the number one engine(the one to the pilot's left), you can see how the blast is kicking up the water on that side. I did clean up the huge oil spot that was on the ramp 20 yards in front of the nose..... too distracting. He was allowed to bring his wife and 2 sons on the trip and I was able to get in the plane to shoot the family, his last crew and he and his wife at the controls in the cockpit. My brother was also there shooting from the jetway. We are going to combine the best and produce a book in iPhoto for him.
The aircraft is a new 737-900 being taxied in by a friend who was finishing his final flight as a Captain for Continental Airlines. The water cannons are putting out so much water that it's shading the front of the aircraft from the bright 2 o'clock sun. When they taxi in the smaller aircraft, they are only using the number one engine(the one to the pilot's left), you can see how the blast is kicking up the water on that side. I did clean up the huge oil spot that was on the ramp 20 yards in front of the nose..... too distracting. He was allowed to bring his wife and 2 sons on the trip and I was able to get in the plane to shoot the family, his last crew and he and his wife at the controls in the cockpit. My brother was also there shooting from the jetway. We are going to combine the best and produce a book in iPhoto for him.
