i flew from nyc (jfk) to syracuse last friday — on jetblue.  it was late afternoon and i expected to be delayed…

we all boarded, etc…  late, natch, and then proceeded to wait.  and wait.  about 20 minutes after our flight should have taken off, the pilot comes out of the cockpit — while we are still at the gate — and jumps on the intercom.

“frank?  frank from ATC.  where are you?  raise your hand, frank…”

(i cannot actually remember if the guy’s name was frank…)

some guy behind me raises his hand and the pilot says:

“everyone, this is frank from ATC.  he will be getting us some preferential treatment today!”

the main door is closed.  we push back and start heading toward the taxiway.  like most airports, there is an inner (close to the gates) and an outer (close to the runways) taxiway.  most people know all about the outer taxiway — especially in nyc — as it is usually the one with a gazillion planes all lined up.  it was no different that day.  i could see almost 20 planes (i later found out it was 23) ahead of us in line.  the pilot jumps on the intercom again:

“thanks to frank, we will be taking off right away!”

and so we did.  we hit the inner taxiway and bypassed all 23 planes in front of us for takeoff.  we never stopped at all and hit the runway at speed after making two sharp turns.

this was not the end of frank’s magic.

as we descended through 10,000 feet on approach to syracuse, the pilot jumped on the intercom again:

“thanks to frank, we will be landing immediately.  flight attendants, please be seated.”

i have flown A LOT over the years and i have never heard a pilot ask the FAs to sit down at 10,000 feet.  ever.  it usually takes ~20-30 minutes to land after you hit approach.

not the case here.

immediately after he finished speaking, he made a massive bank turn that had my window on the right side of the plane looking almost directly down at the carrier dome.  freaky!

it then took, no kidding, less than 5 minutes until we were on the ground taxiing toward our syracuse gate.

i don’t know who this frank character is/was.  in fact, i never actually saw him.  but he is clearly magical.  i highly recommend flying with him at any time!