Fasten Seat Belts

I never saw much of the Addis Ababa terminal the first time I was through Ethiopia, enroute to Mombasa over a year ago, for I was met by smiling Ethiopian Airlines staff as I stepped off the Dreamliner from Toronto over four hours late, my name boldly in marker on a cardboard sheet.  I had long given up on making my connection, settling into that hapless feeling of resignation of a situation beyond my control, but I soon found myself heading down onto the tarmac, jumping into a waiting pickup truck, and was whisked across the ramp directly to my Kenya bound bird, loaded with passengers albeit for my empty seat, patiently standing by for yours truly.  My bag actually made it as well!  That's very good service!  The second time I flew through Ethiopia I was unpleasantly surprised by the Addis Ababa domestic terminal's horrendous Africa toilet story a few posts back, but this time, thankfully, this time it’s the International terminal, with a convenient and well decked out Gold member lounge with all the amenities and late night grub one could hope for.  

Relaxing in the plush business lounge with free halibut steaks in a marinara sauce, rice, fresh vegetables  and a fine Chianti, I did a double take when the spitting image of a very good mate, only thirty years his senior, looking cool and stylish, took the seat beside me.  I kept looking over, trying not to be too obvious, perhaps some industrial accident had turned all my pal's hair white as snow, but it turned out to be someone else.  I texted my pal;  "you’re going to be the shit when you get older".  He seemed to appreciate the dubious glimpse into his future.

For some reason Ethiopian Airlines is not on our company’s preferred airline list, but I’m quite impressed with the airline.  Flying modern birds, with one of the world's largest fleets of the new Dreamliners, smacking of cleanliness and newness, friendly service, convenient routes....what’s not to like?  Of course there was the Ethiopian Airline's pilot who locked himself in the cockpit and hijacked his own plane and headed for Europe for asylum, the same day I was on one of their aircraft headed somewhere else, but I'm sure he had his reasons.  Despite their impeccable style, things sometimes do go awry.  When our wheels touched down in London after eight uneventful hours from Addis Ababa, very, very smoothly I might add, one hapless fellow had his seat belt off, carry on recovered from the overhead bin, and was careening down the aisle for the exit, as the oleos were still busy compressing on the gear.  Within seconds, at least half the other passengers, seeing buddy jump the queue, were up and grabbing their bags and heading for the door as well, as we continued down the runway still over a hundred knots.  People stumbled and fell as the pilot braked to exit the runway, and still people were getting up and the aisles were soon full of pushy swearing stumbling passengers.  Sitting belted, quite enjoying the show, I half expected one of the stewardess to bark some warning for everyone to sit back down, but no, we taxied and turned and braked and people stumbled for at least another twenty minutes before we were finally parked at our gate and the fasten seat belt sign turned off.  I have never seen people in such a hurry to get off such a fine airliner.

After a few days of brutal travel, I'm now in Vancouver on an Approved Check Pilot renewal course, with quite a few old friends in the classroom with me.  War stories, industry news and catching up, all the while recovering from jet leg and I don't know how many thousands of miles.....