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High Speed Chase

Sunday night, I was involved in a high-speed chase across nine states, for several hours, at speeds reaching nearly 600 miles per hour.

That's right, I had bet J that I would beat her back home from our weekend trip since we were on different flights. I figured I had it made since my flight was not only scheduled to land earlier, but her flight was through Philly on US Air. I mean, the last time I flew through Philly on US Air, I didn't even make it back home until the next day! She was doomed!

But alas, she ended up getting a sweet deal when her flight was overbooked and the airline offered her a free round trip, plus a re-route on Northwest through different cities, and in first class part of the way. But it meant her flight would actually land even later, so I figured I was safe. But then my connection was delayed because of late equipment, so we ended up taking off just about the same time. Only I was starting a couple of hundred miles farther back.

I monitored our progress on channel 9, and a little ways into the flight, I heard her flight being mentioned by the controller. We were in the same controller's airspace! However, it soon became clear that she was about 20 minutes ahead of me. Throughout the night, I continued to monitor our progress as we hurtled through the dark sky.

We were taking a more southerly route, and I became encouraged when her flight had to take a deviation to avoid thunderstorms. But her flight was still being handed off to the next controller about 16 minutes ahead of us. I was further encouraged when a controller had to slow her down for traffic, but alas, it was only briefly, and we made up only maybe a minute on that.

It's too bad we were both on 757's... if I'd been on a 777 or 747 we could have made up some more time as the cruise speed is faster. But alas, as expected, she blocked in to the gate almost exactly 15 minutes ahead of me.

The travesty? Her original US Air flight beat us both...