Fear of flying: one plane's story

摘要

Flight 4184 was stuck in a holding pattern late on Halloween afternoon, waiting to land at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The weather was lousy: drizzle at 10,000 feet, the temperature near freezing. In the cockpit of the ATR-72 twin turboprop, the pilots flipped on the wing de-icers, letting the autopilot guide the aircraft through a series of lazy turns. The plane had been circling for 30 minutes. Things were getting a little boring.