I flew home from my uncle's funeral on Wednesday. Tampa to Dallas, then Dallas to Seattle. What I didn't expect was an eagle eye/airplane at altitude view of the oil damage to the Gulf. We started to fly over water around Pensacola, FL and my view if the oil was pretty immediate. We flew for approximately 35 minutes, the my eyes could not believe the vastness of the damage. You could see what I think are oil platforms, surrounded by boats, I never saw the big rig area, but I certainly could see the oil. It looked like the chocolate river in the new Willie Wonka movie.
Harder to comprehend was the areas of wetlands, marsh, boat lanes, all chocolate color. Remember I was flying at 31,000 feet, so the ships in the shipping lane looked like little toys. Once in a while you would see a lake, with a nice clear clean surface. I have been sick about this ever since I saw it. I really didn't understand the size, and scope. Nothing we have seen on TV or on the news or in the papers conveys how huge this thing is.
The flight attendants said that the airlines weren't allow to fly over the area in the early stages of the oil disaster. I don't think a few Coast Guard skimmers is going to make a dent in this devastation for a very long (years!) time.
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