Thursday, January 06, 2005
The flight from hell.
Christmas was over and we were heading back to Bosnia from Stockholm. Due to packing, bad planning and the fact that I woke up every half hour convinced that we had missed the plane, we didn’t get much sleep at all. The taxi pulled up at 05.00
There was chaos at Arlanda. I had hoped that it should be deserted but no, large crowds with swedes heading out for holiday or something.
We had a bit of a fallout with the cashier at the tax-free desk who refused to give me any money and made us show all the packages. Let just say that my mood was a bit foul and it was not going to get any better….
As it turned out the tax-free man inside the gate was more friendly and we eventually managed to get all the money we were entitled to.
We got on the plane to Munich and everything went fine. We had to run a bit to catch our connecting flight as we were a bit late from Stockholm, but we made it. The plane flew towards Sarajevo and everything seemed fine. I noticed that it took longer then usual and then discovered that we were circling over Sarajevo. The pilot announced that the fog lay thick around the airport and that he wasn’t sure they could land. Suddenly he tried and began the approach. Everything seemed fine, I saw the hills and the houses through the window. Suddenly everything turned white. I don’t know how close to the ground we where but the wheels where out. I really thought he was going make it, but he didn’t.
He pulled up in the last minute and gave full gas. The plane roared and climbed fast up. We went back to Munich.
In Munich everyone on the plane ran for the Lufthansa service center. There were a lot of confused people there and some Bosnian woman who didn’t understand English or German thought she was in Sarajevo and wanted her bags. We got booked on a plane to Vienna, and had to run to catch that. In Vienna we had to wait for 4 hours in some crappy café witch charged 3 euros for a coffee. Finally our flight to Sarajevo got called and we went to check in. There was chaos at the check in. The staff at Munich had issued us temporary tickets and the Austrian airlines staff wouldn’t accept them at first. An American guy who had been travelling for 36 hours was not let through until the last minute because he lacked some signature on his ticket. He finally got through.
The flight was tense and everyone watched the monitors that displayed the speed and altitude of the plane. The fog still lay thick in Sarajevo, and the pilot warned the he might not be able to land and we might have to go back to Vienna…
The plane flew in on final approach and was sat down on the runway with the fog surrounding in. Spontaneous applause from the passengers. We where so happy to be home again.
Total starts and landings: 8
Hours delayed: 10
Airports visited: 4
There was chaos at Arlanda. I had hoped that it should be deserted but no, large crowds with swedes heading out for holiday or something.
We had a bit of a fallout with the cashier at the tax-free desk who refused to give me any money and made us show all the packages. Let just say that my mood was a bit foul and it was not going to get any better….
As it turned out the tax-free man inside the gate was more friendly and we eventually managed to get all the money we were entitled to.
We got on the plane to Munich and everything went fine. We had to run a bit to catch our connecting flight as we were a bit late from Stockholm, but we made it. The plane flew towards Sarajevo and everything seemed fine. I noticed that it took longer then usual and then discovered that we were circling over Sarajevo. The pilot announced that the fog lay thick around the airport and that he wasn’t sure they could land. Suddenly he tried and began the approach. Everything seemed fine, I saw the hills and the houses through the window. Suddenly everything turned white. I don’t know how close to the ground we where but the wheels where out. I really thought he was going make it, but he didn’t.
He pulled up in the last minute and gave full gas. The plane roared and climbed fast up. We went back to Munich.
In Munich everyone on the plane ran for the Lufthansa service center. There were a lot of confused people there and some Bosnian woman who didn’t understand English or German thought she was in Sarajevo and wanted her bags. We got booked on a plane to Vienna, and had to run to catch that. In Vienna we had to wait for 4 hours in some crappy café witch charged 3 euros for a coffee. Finally our flight to Sarajevo got called and we went to check in. There was chaos at the check in. The staff at Munich had issued us temporary tickets and the Austrian airlines staff wouldn’t accept them at first. An American guy who had been travelling for 36 hours was not let through until the last minute because he lacked some signature on his ticket. He finally got through.
The flight was tense and everyone watched the monitors that displayed the speed and altitude of the plane. The fog still lay thick in Sarajevo, and the pilot warned the he might not be able to land and we might have to go back to Vienna…
The plane flew in on final approach and was sat down on the runway with the fog surrounding in. Spontaneous applause from the passengers. We where so happy to be home again.
Total starts and landings: 8
Hours delayed: 10
Airports visited: 4
# posted by Expatriate @ 1/06/2005 03:39:00 PM 
