[sally]

I was flying 'home' this past Sunday and right after everybody got settled in and the plane was ready to take off, I sensed the strongest smell of fuel. Naturally I began to freak out and called for an attendant, who upon hearing my concerns said that she too, had smelled the same and asked the captain about it. He told her to wait for another 15 minutes and see if the smell was as strong or not. So I'm thinking, oh great, we're all gonna die. And then obviously I can't really panick outloud because I'm Muslim but I just wanted to get off that plane. 2 minutes before takeoff, the smell is still present. I call for an attendant. A different one shows up. She says she doesn't smell anything out of the ordinary, and obviously she's been flying forever and a half. So I'm thinking, why did the other attendant feel concerned, then? I'm not new to flying at all. I've flown a good # of times this year. Anyways, I was still thinking about how badly I wanted to get off the plane but it had already started to take off and by that time I was thinking about how I was trapped on a dysfunctional plane. And the fact that I probably would not be able to get off of it without causing a scene due to my Muslim-ness was all the more irritating. So the smell goes away. 10 minutes later, it COMES BACK. I call the attendant and I'm like, look, I don't have a flying phobia or anything, but seriously this is crazy. Don't you smell a thing? So she's like, oh, don't worry, I think it's the heating system. We had it cleaned or had a new one installed or something.

I think? How reassuring.

I ended up spending a good portion of the flight praying and hoping for everything to turn out okay.