Thruster Reversers

The thrust reversers. According to the pilot coming over the loud speaker, that was the culprit keeping our plane on the ground in Salt Lake City. Now, I'm no pilot, but my emotional state just overpowered my sense of safety and I thought, 'We are planning to reach DIA by flying FOREward so I fail to see the importance of thrust REVERSERS working properly'. This was, until I realized that those particular items are employed not during flight, but in landing and were a key component in stopping the airplane before it would skid along the runway and slam into the terminal building, maiming any number of innocent travelers and exploding in a blaze of...whatever. I now have a new appreciation for two things: the phrase 'airline terminal' and, you guessed it--thrust reversers. The pilot on the intercom said something about experimental isolation and disengagement of these thrust reversers and that the plane's engines would be tagged with red tape by the ground crew, and that substitutional methods of landing would be employed upon our arrival at Denver. Based on my recent considerations, this was a barely acceptable proposition but, since my job was simply to fasten my seat belt and place my tray table in its upright position, there wasn't much I could do save nod my head in concurrence and feign placidity of spirit.

There's no big plot twist to this entry. We made it to DIA without incident. Our airplane landed and stopped completely intact and as expected. The red tape must have worked.