[Lee Stewart]

I've flown on commercial 6 passenger "puddle jumper" planes all the way up to Jumbo Jets. Flown all over the world. Had some interesting flights like the one I was on from Rome, Italy to Athens, Greece and we flew through a violent thunderstorm. When we landed, service people had to bring in hundreds of newspapers to cover all the vomit in the aisles so we could deplane.

But the worst flight I ever took was a one day, in and out to Pittsburgh, PA. It was in January. I was visiting my client; Westinghouse Corporate. When I left LaGuardia it was cold but sunny. When we arrived in the Pittsburg area there was a snow storm raging right over the airport. I have always trusted pilots and their equipment as they have never failed to get me to my destination and get me home.

We were circling the tower for at least 1 hour which I felt wasn't normal. Then the pilot makes an announcement . . . "we can't verify that our landing gear is fully down. We are running out of fuel and can't fly to another airport." We are told to put on all of our coats, hats, gloves etc. Then we are told to assume the crash position. It turned out that a light on the console that tells the pilot that the gear is fully down had burned out. Due to the severe weather, the tower couldn't see if the gear was fully down. We landed with no issues other than seeing all the emergency equipment lining the runway as we landed.

By the time I left Pittsburgh the storm had moved on.