The Flight

Have you ever tried to land a medium sized plane in 25 m/s windspeed? Well me neither, obviously, but I have been around for 3 attempts. One of them successful.

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the departure hall in the airport of a small town named George. It’s not Georgetown. It’s just George. Unless I got it wrong. But it matters not because I didn’t really want to come here and I wasn’t supposed to come here either. But apparently all flights have what is known as a “alternate destination”, where the plane will land if it can’t make the landing at the primary destination. I’ve never considered this because I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had to before. The first attempt at landing in Port Elizabeth, that’s what it said on the ticket, was awful. I’ve never been so scared in a plane before. But the second attempt was from another angle and therefore even worse. I hate sounding repetitive but I’ve never been so scared in a plane before. The captain then proceeds to inform us, in an alarmingly care free manor, that we’re proceeding to the alternate destination, George.

The fear almost makes me miss the stunning mountains surrounding this town. Soon we will be taking off again to try once again.

some time later...

Do you remember back in the old days when people would applaud after the landing? Yeah that just happened. We have now landed where it said on the ticket, Port Elizabeth. This time the wind was stronger but at a better angle.

It was awful. I’ve never been so scared on a plane before.