Applause on a Plane

Cathie and I were watching the movie Flightplan this evening and Cathie was laughing at how the passengers were applauding when the Air Marshall walked down the aisle with Jodie Foster in handcuffs. I explained to her that I've made an entire plane applaud. She doubted me. Here's what happened:

I was flying home from Florida when our plane got diverted due to a storm. We didn't have enough fuel, so we had to touch down somewhere to refuel the plane. During our landing, the plane blew a tire. Since it wasn't a Northwest hub, they had to fly a replacement tire in. They couldn't replace the tire, so they replaced the plane. The crew worked hard to shift all the luggage into the exact overhead bins, but it took a long time and people were getting ornery. By the time we got back on the plane, people were being downright mean to the flight crew. In order to quiet and shame the cantakerous passengers, I stood up announced very loudly that the flight crew had worked hard to make sure we could get home tonight, and that we should all give them a big round of applause to show our appreciation. They applauded. 10 minutes later, one of the flight attendants came over and handed me a very full air sickness bag and thanked me for my kind words. Instead of being filled with puke (which would have been funny in and of itself) it was filled with about 40 airline liquor bottles.

Cathie's response: "Ohhhh. That's were all those bottles came from."