Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 554, An Emergency Airplane Landing.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 554.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Please go to our website and support this podcast by becoming a member or making a small donation.
You can do so at eslpod.com.
This episode is called an emergency airplane landing.
A landing is when the plane comes down to the ground.
An emergency landing would be when there's some problem with the airplane.
Let's get started.
I was nearly asleep in my seat when I heard this announcement Folks, this is the captain speaking from the cockpit.
We are experiencing a lot of turbulence and I'm turning on the fasten seatbelt sign.
Please remain in your seats.
I didn't think anything of it until a few minutes later, when I heard this announcement.
This is your captain speaking again.
Due to extreme weather conditions, we may need to make an emergency landing.
The cabin crew will review the emergency procedures and This is when I started to freak out.
What if we crash land?
What if we dive into the ocean?
Who would rescue us here in the middle of nowhere?
Then I heard this announcement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain again.
It seems that we had an instrument malfunction and no emergency landing will be necessary.
Sorry to alarm you and please go back to sleep.
Go back to sleep?
Is he kidding?
How can anyone sleep after that?
I'm still watching my life flash before my eyes.
Our story begins.
When I say I was nearly, meaning I was almost asleep in my seat when I heard this announcement.
Of course, we're on an airplane in the middle of an airplane flight.
Folks, this is the captain speaking from the cockpit.
Folks is an informal way of saying, ladies and gentlemen.
Even more informal would be guys or hey guys, but a captain wouldn't say that.
Folks is a little old-fashioned.
The word folks is also used to describe your parents.
Somebody says, my folks are traveling.
They mean my parents are traveling.
But here it just means ladies and gentlemen.
This is the captain speaking from the cockpit, he says.
The cockpit C-O-C-K-P-I-T is the part of the plane where the pilot and the assistant pilot we call him or her the co-pilot sit separated from the rest of the plane.
It's in the very front of the plane, the cockpit.
The captain says that we are experiencing, meaning we are having a lot of turbulence.
Turbulence is when you have unpredictable movement in the airplane.
Usually because of wind or storms, the airplane starts to move up and down or side to side.
It's usually an uncomfortable situation.
The captain turns on the fasten seatbelt sign.
A seatbelt is a belt that keeps you in your seat.
Most cars have seatbelts.
You put the seatbelt on before you start driving.
In fact, that's the law in most places in the United States.
On an airplane, you also have a seatbelt that will, we hope, prevent you from getting hurt if there is some sort of emergency situation or a lot of turbulence, so you don't fall out of your seat.
To fasten a seat belt means to put it on.
To fasten something means to connect one thing with another.
A seatbelt has a metal end on it and that fastens or connects into the other part of the seatbelt that is on the other side of the seat.
The fastened seatbelt sign is a sign in the airplane that you can see, usually above every seat, that tells you whether you can get up and walk around or whether you should remain in your seat with your seatbelts fastened.
The captain tells people to remain in their seats.
The captain comes on again.
This is your captain speaking again.
Due to extreme weather conditions, we may need to make an emergency landing.
Extreme weather conditions would be a lot of rain, snow or wind.
That might affect the way the plane flies.
An emergency landing is when the plane has to come down to the ground or perhaps the water, because there's some problem with the airplane and it can't continue flying.
Landing is when the plane comes back down to the ground.
The opposite is called the takeoff.
That's when the plane goes up in the air.
Well, an emergency landing, of course, is a very serious thing.
The captain says that the cabin crew will review emergency procedures.
A crew is a group of people in this case who are working together.
These are people who work for the airline.
They are called typically flight attendants.
And they work on the plane.
They give you your food.
They provide information and directions and so forth.
The cabin is the part of the plane where the people are.
Usually in American airplanes, there is a big cabin, which is called the coach cabin.
That's where the cheap seats are.
And then there's the business or first class cabin in the front of the plane, where they have nice seats and good food.
The cabin refers in general to everything, all of the passengers in the airplanes.
So the cabin crew really means the flight attendants, in this case everyone but the pilots who are in the front flying the plane.
Procedures are steps, things that you have to do.
Emergency procedures would be the things you have to do in this case, if they had to make an emergency landing.
The captain says the cabin crew will give instructions on how to use the flotation devices and the oxygen masks.
To float, F-L-O-A-T, means to go into the water but not to go down below the water.
You stay on top of the water.
A flotation device is something that you either wear or hold on to that prevents your body from going underneath the water.
So if you can't swim, for example, but you have a flotation device, you can hang on to the flotation device so that you don't go down into the water and die.
The oxygen mask is a small device you put over your mouth and your nose so that you can breathe oxygen in.
Of course, you need oxygen to survive.
And when the plane is up at a very high altitude, when it is high above the earth, you need that oxygen given to you.
In an emergency situation, you have oxygen masks.
Usually they are above where you are sitting.
The captain tells everyone to please stay calm, which of course means don't get excited, don't panic.
But that's very difficult for people to do in this situation.
I say that this is when I started to freak out.
To freak out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to become very worried or anxious or scared.
It's somewhat of an informal term.
Then I say, what if we crash land?
To crash land means that the airplane has to go down either on the ground or somewhere else, but not at the airport.
Of course you don't want the plane to land somewhere else, because many times the plane will blow up, it'll explode and once again you would die.
You see, this is a happy, happy story.
I hope you're not listening to this while you're on the airplane.
I say also, because I'm so worried, what if we dive into the ocean?
To dive D-I-V-E means to jump or to fall into the water from above, usually so that you are then completely underneath the water, at least for a period of time.
Dive has a couple of other meanings in English, very different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
So I am afraid that the plane is going to go down into the ocean.
I then say, who would rescue us here in the middle of nowhere?
The middle of nowhere, or in the middle of nowhere means it's a very remote place, which means it isn't near anything else.
There aren't any cities, there aren't any towns, there aren't a lot of people around.
That would be in the middle of nowhere.
To rescue means to find and save someone who's in a difficult situation.
So there'll be no one to rescue us if they crash land or go into the ocean, because there is no one near them.
They're in the middle of nowhere.
Then I hear the final announcement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain again. it seems that we had an instrument malfunction.
An instrument is a tool, in this case, a tool that provides you information how high the plane is flying, how fast the plane is going.
These are pieces of information that the instruments in the cockpit will indicate.
A malfunction is when something breaks, when it doesn't work, when it stops working properly.
So the captain is saying that there isn't an emergency.
It was just a problem with their instruments.
The information was wrong.
The machine was not working properly.
It malfunctioned.
He says, sorry to alarm you and please go back to sleep.
To alarm someone means to scare them or make them very worried, usually by telling them some very bad news.
I, of course, am surprised at what the captain is saying.
He tells us to go back to sleep.
I then say, is he kidding?
Is he joking?
How can anyone sleep after that?
You thought you were going to die one minute, the next minute, everything is fine, but you're still not able to just go back to sleep.
I say, I'm still watching my life flash before my eyes.
Usually, this is an expression that indicates that you are about to die.
For example, you're in a car and the car begins to go over the other side of the road and another car is about to hit you.
One second, two seconds before you die, your life may flash before your eyes.
You may suddenly think of all these things that happened in your life.
In general, the expression is to indicate that you are in a very dangerous situation.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
I was nearly asleep in my seat when I heard this announcement.
Folks, this is your captain speaking from the cockpit.
I didn't think anything of it until a few minutes later when I heard this announcement.
This is your captain speaking again.
Due to extreme weather conditions, we may need to make an emergency landing.
The cabin crew will review the emergency procedures and give you instructions on how to use the flotation devices and the oxygen masks.
Please stay calm.
This is when I started to freak out.
What if we crash land?
What if we dive into the ocean?
Who would rescue us here in the middle of nowhere?
Then I heard this announcement.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain again.
It seems we had an instrument malfunction and no emergency landing will be necessary.
Sorry to alarm you and please go back to sleep.
Go back to sleep?
Is he kidding?
How can anyone sleep after that?
I'm still watching my life flash before my eyes.
The script for this episode was written by someone who never freaks out in an emergency, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Say.
Hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
