All week, media around the world had been talking about one thing, Hurricane Milton.
And, as it turned out, the arrival of the hurricane into Florida would coincide with the arrival someone else, me.
Boarding the flight in Los Angeles, there was tension in the departure gate.
A giant category 5 elephant in the room was front of mind.
As soon as we boarded the aircraft, the elephant in the room was addressed by the pilot who discussed something even larger than the elephant, the amount of fuel onboard.
46,000 tonnes of fuel. Enough, apparently to get us anywhere! Plenty to get us out of the path of Hurricane Milton should we need to.
As the pilot had forewarned, the first 3 or so hours of the flight was standard. It was when we turned right north east of Jacksonville to approach Miami from the east that the flight got bumpy.
There were some very dark clouds, and a series of quite extreme moments of turbulence or “rough air” as the airline calls it now.
But, as we got to the southern edge of the storm, the flight gradually smoothed right out, and our touchdown in Miami was met with applause for the captain and crew by all onboard.
“Thank you,” I said to the captain as I disembarked.
“It wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what I had expected,” the captain said before wishing me well for the rest of my journey.
One which will hopefully remain free of any further hurricane interactions.
