On Monday, Mrs. Bob was scheduled to fly out of Newark, NJ, to somewhere in the Midwest. As is our way, we (me, frankly) added the flight number to our electronic calendars because, on MacOS and iOS, you can easily track by right-clicking or tapping and holding on the flight number.
What I found interesting is that because the plane left the gate, it was considered departed. I know that every person who flies regularly is aware this is how it works, but frankly, that’s horseshit. A flight departs once it takes off. There is no way we’d find other systems working this way as acceptable. You have a deadly infection, and the doctor walks in with the antibiotic… “You’re cured!” And an Amazon warehouse worker picks out your ordered item… “It’s delivered!”
As is Mrs. Bob’s luck, her flight was delayed. After some time, the pilot announced their amended flight plan had been approved, and they’d hopefully be leaving shortly. Yay. Here’s the interesting part: The built-in system on the Mac and iOS showed her plane had taken off, and I could track it on a map. But, of course, it hadn’t taken off at all. It was there, in Newark.
Better still, the system showed me her plane was about to land when she messaged, “We’re headed back to the gate to deplane.”
So that tracking system built into MacOS and iOS is just a fantasy. A computer-enhanced hallucination1. Maybe everyone already knows this, but I thought the built-in tracking was at least a decent approximation of what is going on in the real world.