Applauding the Landing

My friend Katherine asks why people don't applaud when their plane lands anymore, and I hope it's because people are getting better at risk assessment and realize that flying is far safer than driving a car -- but that's probably not the reason.  And sometimes people do applaud.  On the way home from San Francisco Monday evening, there was a massive thunderstorm between Denver and Colorado Springs that closed the airport because of lightning strikes when we were about 100 miles out.  After circling the Denver Airport for 45 minutes, we finally landed at DIA instead of getting diverted to Laramie, Wyoming.  And people did applaud.  The approach was a little swervy, but the landing was not that bumpy, and not at all scary compared to various and sundry aborted landings and takeoffs I've had in Washington DC and San Francisco in fog banks and flying through hurricanes.   It was nice to get down safely, and then drive my car at an unsafe rate of speed the 50 miles home.