First Flights in the Pandemic and Impressions

We returned from the West Coast at 1AM this morning from Seattle/Tacoma. I had not flown since the INFORMS Security Conference in beautiful Monterey, California in February 2020. I had also not taken a "vacation" since way before then and, frankly, it felt good to put up the "I am away message."

In 2019 alone, I had given invited talks in Chile, Ireland, France, Greece, Colombia, and Mexico as well as in many parts of the US and had also been to Ukraine for an academic business meeting. I was, pre-pandemic, a frequent flier, and have missed travel tremendously. My travels, almost exclusively, involve professional travel but, this past Wednesday, it was time to visit family before we all begin another busy academic year of teaching.

My husband and I flew out of Bradley airport (in Hartford/Springfield) early last Wednesday morning on United and we had a connection in Denver. The flights we took yesterday, also through Denver, were actually rebooked from today and, thank goodness, that we did get rebooked since the last flight into Bradley that we were originally scheduled for got cancelled because of Hurricane Henri, the first hurricane to hit New England in 30 years. We always "dress up" when we fly and, believe me, one gets better service then. We got whisked through fast lanes on TSA check ins!

I am one of those travelers that enjoys the journey and I also love flying.

All the flights were jam-packed and I had a middle seat on all 4 flights. United was very efficient in boarding us, which certainly pleased me and there was only one kerfuffle with our online checkin yesterday and then the changing of our seat assignments so I was passing notes to my husband with the help of multiple passengers in our row (he got a window seat) to get messages to him.

I had many impressions on the flying and airport experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite announcements that everyone was to have their masks  covering both the nose and mouth, I saw quite a few masks below the nose in the airports and some folks seemed to dilly dally with their drinks and food to have their masks below their chins as long as possible.

I had packed extra masks in my briefcase (this was not professional travel but I still can't fly without my briefcase) and these came in handy since the gentleman yesterday next to me on the flight from Denver had his mask consistently slipping below his nose. His was very grateful for my mask and thanked me. I had a marvelous conversation with him (yes, I am one of those "talkers" on planes but I am genuinely interested in people and have made some amazing connections on flights - even a teaching gig at Harvard in Executive Education). He was a trucker he told me for UPS. As someone who will soon be teaching her Transportation and Logistics class, who could be a better seat-mate? He has been doing long distance journeys for UPS in the pandemic so the conversation was so interesting and informative (I could write a post just about it but my students will get to hear a lot). And, on the flight on Wednesday from Bradley to Denver, I had a top lawyer next to me, who had driven his daughter all the way to the University of Hartford, where she is a student! My husband teaches there, so the conversation was also amazing - plus, the lawyer has 4 children and was involved in the Amazon IPO! And, on the flight yesterday from Seattle to Denver, I was seated next to a student from Washington University who had been an intern at Amazon all summer and was flying from Denver to Newark to get home to Jersey City. He is a CS major focusing on hardware. So we chatted about his experiences at Amazon and also learning in the pandemic.

The lady on the other side of me on the last flight yesterday was cold, so I lent her one of my travel scarves to warm her up.

Outside of the student who sat next to me, everyone was flying for family reasons - they had not seen children or grandchildren for about 2 years - were now fully vaccinated, and could not put off living any more.

We wore N-95 masks throughout our travel on planes, taxis, and being in airports, and, when the lady behind us was coughing on the first leg, I offered her Ricola cough drops, which she declined, and said that she had "an allergy." I could go on about this but will stop here. It was time for us to double mask, which we did.

Tacoma was gorgeous - I could easily live there. I will share some photos at another time. 

And,  as I write this, we have torrential rains and high winds in Amherst due to Henri. There already are over 100,000 people without power in the northeast. While we were on the West Coast, I heard from many colleagues and friends as far as Hong Kong who were very  concerned about us making it back east because of Henri. Thank you for the thoughtfulness, which is so appreciated.

We managed to get some fresh produce at local farm stands but were shocked and disappointed that at the Cumberland Farms in northern Amherst very few were wearing masks, even people with children and we have a mask mandate now in public interior places in Amherst.

What if Your Plane Was Hit by Lightning and a Highly Perishable Product

This past Tuesday, April 2, I was trying to get back from Oklahoma City to Amherst, Massachusetts.

I had had a fabulous stay at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, during which I gave two  lectures as part of a Dream Course there. I wrote about the outstanding hospitality of my hosts in a post.

The weather in Oklahoma on April 1 was delightful -- warm and sunny,  but,  on my flying day back, it was fray and stormy, and I had heard thunder since about 4AM that night.

When I got to the Oklahoma City airport, courtesy of my wonderful host, Professor Janet K. Allen, I saw that my flight to Dallas was delayed and that I would not be able to make the connecting flight to Bradley airport in Hartford/Springfield.

So I agreed to be rerouted to Chicago O'Hare.

The lightning was continuing and as I stood in line waiting to get a sandwich I started a conversation with the lady in front of me who asked where I was flying to. She then told me that a plane that had just flown in from Chicago had been struck by lightning.

I wandered over to my gate and saw no plane, but, given my endless academic curiosity, I proceeded to investigate. She had also told me that there were long lines and that the airline was offering vouchers (I would not mind seeing Hawaii again).

The Southwest plane below was the one that had been struck by lightning as it was descending into the Oklahoma City Airport, and the mechanics could not start working and checking it out until the lightning was more than three miles away, for safety reasons.

The passengers had seen a bright flash of light in the plane when the lightning struck.

Many nervous passengers that were scheduled to fly on the above plane to Chicago were milling around Gate 18 whereas others were being rerouted.

A woman with an infant against her chest approached the gate agent.  I was going to talk to him since as a professor,  who teaches a course in transportation and logistics, among other operations-type courses, I wanted to gather more information that I could share with my students. I dug up this article from Scientific American on what can happen when lightning strikes a plane.

The woman said that she was traveling, via Chicago, on Southwest,  to Manchester, New Hampshire, where she was relocating to, and on the plane above, with the other cargo, was about a 4 month supply of breast milk.

Breast milk is a perishable product and, I thought to myself, having just had our latest book, Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products, published, that this "product" has similar characteristics to that of human blood -- you have to give it willingly and it is ingested into another human body. Blood supply chains are one of the case studies in our book.

The mother was panicky. She had done her homework and had about a 10 hour time window in which to get her very valuable packages back into the freezer.  I could really empathize and, being a problem-solver, I offered some suggestions.

In about 40 minutes or so, the plane was cleared for flying and the passengers had boarded (but two who were having lunch were not let back on board once the doors were shut).

And  I went to thank the Southwest gate agents when I heard that the plane from Chicago to Manchester would be held for the mother, her baby, and their valuable cargo!

In my research, I came upon this interesting post about shipping perishables, including blood and breast milk, in disasters, such as Haiti.

About an hour later, I got on my American Airlines flight to Chicago and eventually made it back to Massachusetts. On my leg from O'Hare to Bradley I was seated next to an executive and we talked non-stop. He had been to 116 countries and was in Vienna, Austria when I had been there in March. We discussed everything from our favorite cities to the US healthcare system and how he, at age 72, cannot even think of retiring since work is so interesting. He works in the international insurance business so we also talked about trust, reputation, and the importance of meeting people face-to-face -- and, hence, one of the reasons we fly so much!

Freight as the Weakest Link in the Chain

I travel a lot by plane, train, automobile, and/or bus and frequently write on this blog about my travel experiences. In my writings I have also commented on my air travel experiences and lack of security at distant airports. In my research, I assess network systems, in particular, those in transportation and logistics, including supply chains, from their efficiency to their vulnerability. A recent study of ours: "Fragile Networks; Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age" highlights the system-wide aspects of network performance and the negative impact of disruptions as well as total link failures.

The events over the past couple of days in which cargo shipments, originating in Yemen, were found to contain explosive devices, which could have brought down airplanes, have further highlighted the importance of checking cargo.

As reported in the article, Mail Bombs Highlight Flaws in Systems for Screening Air Freight, in today's Boston Globe: "If you talk to anybody senior at airports, they will tell you freight is the weak link in the chain." This quote by Chris Yates, an aviation security specialist, is literally on target.

As for the facts reported in the article:

• Approximately 60 percent of all cargo coming into the United States is on passenger planes with the remainder of about 40 percent arriving on cargo planes.
• About 50,000 tons of cargo is shipped by air within the United States every day, with approximately 25 percent of that shipped by passenger airlines.

One particular vulnerability in the system: Trusted companies that regularly do business with freight shippers are allowed to ship parcels as “secure’’ cargo that is not automatically subjected to further checks.

Some countries such as England already have heightened and thorough cargo security checks which delay shipments up to 24 hours but offer safety and piece of mind. Here we see multicriteria decision-making in action -- counterbalancing cost vs. time vs. safety/security.

Read the terrific article in the Boston Globe by Gregory Katz and ponder what else besides the passengers and crew may be on that plane with you as you circle the globe.