S.O.B.'s

From 1970-1985, I was responsible for remote video and photography shoots for Borg-Warner Corporation in York, PA. 

On one of these remote shoots, some engineers and I boarded the corporate plane at Thomasville Airport and headed for suburban Detroit. I enjoyed this kind of "intimate" flying, since you got to watch the pilot who was almost within arm's reach.

The pilot's reaction when meeting him at the plane with multiple cases of video and lighting equipment was predictable. "You want to take all of that gear?" Anyway, we stacked the video and lighting gear on the seats and in the aisle between the seats and away we went.

After the shoot, we drove back to the Detroit Airport for our return flight to York. It was storming and the pilot wasn't sure if he should take off. I recall him calling the tower and saying, "I have 6 S.OB's on this flight". When he got off the phone I asked him why he called us S.O.B.'s? He said it meant Souls On Board, which wouldn't be what he would say if he had a corpse on board. Didn't ask if that would be C.O.B. but anyway, it was interesting. I also assumed that the airline industry believes that the soul leaves the body when we die. Me too.

Anyway, the pilot decided to take off and attempted to fly above the storm. It was a pretty harrowing flight, since my gear was falling on us as the plane fought the turbulence. Eventually, all of the SOB's finally landed safe and sound and were happy to be back in Thomasville, PA.