Helisher's Air Crash Investigation

I'm sure I've spoken about this before but for the absent minded, in the last few years started to suffer from the anxiety of air travel. Its bizarre in that I'm no stranger to air travel and up until a few years ago had no issues at all but a couple of incidents and a lot of watching 'Air Crash Investigation' on Foxtel can certainly change perceptions and thoughts of what could happen in the 3 mins that it takes to exit a plane and hit the ground.

My latest encounter of flight anxiety came on an early morning hop to Melbourne. These days I'm hyper vigilant, if there's a delay with boarding I automatically think 'technical problem'. On my way back from Europe this year the Captain made an announcement that a doctor was required - I interpreted that as 'We're preparing you for an emergency routing to somewhere very close and I'm using the old 'sick patient' excuse' !

Anyway, our flight to Melbourne was delayed 30 mins and our gate changed. As I correctly assumed, to change planes. So I'm getting on and settling in when one of the cabin crew makes the following announcement;

'Ladies and Gentleman, apologies for the delay this morning but we now have a SAFER aircraft for you'

Aha, a SAFER aircraft ? Wow, thanks for the confidence inspiring pep talk. So the aircraft that I'm on now is 'safer' than what exactly ? The aircraft that's on the tarmac that won't be flying ? I'd rather be on a plane not flying than one up at 30,000 feet that is moderately safer than the one with technical difficulty. I mean really, what the hell did that announcement mean ?

Then it was the turn of our inspirational Captain. I assume the 'safer' terminology didn't wash well with him or general Virgin Blue business practice because he came up with the following;

'Ladies and Gentleman, we'll be pushing back shortly, apologies for the delay but it was due to a technical fault, but now, ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE, our cabin crew are here to assist with your every need'

Ummmm Captain, if I'm ranking customer service and the safety of the aircraft then I know exactly which one I'd regard as more important. How much more freakin serious can customer service be over a 'technical fault'. Was the comment on the technical fault not serious enough or do Virgin Blue just take their customer service desperately seriously ? I mean serving coffee and handing out muffins is not a stretch in anyone's books but is more of a stretch than having a functioning engine ???

My flight back to Sydney is on Friday, here's to safe landings !