Wednesday, 18 August 2010

On flights

On a recent flight from Lisbon to Zurich an announcement was made that I could not understand. What language was this?, I asked the air hostess. Portuguese, she said. No, it isn't, I smiled. Okay let me check, she answered. It turned out to be Romanian - the previous Swiss flight had been to Bucharest.

Years ago, at Johannesburg Airport, a pitch dark, rainy African night, the pilot says: Welcome, Ladies and Gentleman to this flight to ... äh ... äh ... äh ... sorry ... äh ... Durban, right ...

On Thai Airways International, I asked the air hostess how the weather was in Bangkok: In Thailand we have three seasons, she smiled: hot, hotter, hottest.

Twice I had been on flights I was not supposed to be on, from Skiathos to Athens, and from Lombok to Bali.
In Lombok, I was a day early for my flight to Bali but they did not pay attention and checked me through. Once all the passengers were on the plane, they realised that there was one too many and frantically tried to find that person. I kept quiet. Finally, they decided to leave an air hostess behind.
From the Skiathos-Athens flight I only remember that the scheduled plane did not arrive and that I somehow made it onto a smaller plane. After they read out the passenger list, they asked whether there was somebody on board who had not been mentioned. I had not but remained silent ... and so we took off.

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