Oh my oh my ! It all started as any layover would start : OK. Flying over was a breeze as always with Japan bound flights. Passengers were great, slept all the way. Landed in Osaka, Japan, nine hours later feeling fine. Hit up the hotel, ordered my sacred Club Sandwich and hit the sack for some sleep. Woke up next morning afternoon feeling great. Took the shuttle to JR Osaka Station and stormed in the HEP Five clothing mall. MAn I never saw a place with so many teens going crazy over a Hello Kitty Belt !!!!! It was like going to the zoo only without the cage protecting you from the hungry animals. Loved it. I crashed into that shop and saw what I’d been looking for for years. An amazing looking leather jacket with a perfect fit, which is hard to find for a chap with my body frame. So tried it on and what have you. Bear in mind I didn’t take a single look at the price tag. When I eventually looked up the dangling cardboard…. I was put off. I was disgusted. Saving up for a flat back home has it’s downsides I can tell you ! Otherwise I’d heat that chip card like no other ! Osaka is a fun place. Heaving with locals. Like an ant colony on a Sunday shopping spree.
By then my legs were feeling the pain and sat my bum in a cab back to the hotel. Ended up watching a re-run of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart & Bill Clinton on CNN. Giggled and started to get ready for our return sector to DXB (Dubai). Little did I knew.
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Having planned my rest for a 10 hour flight with 2 hour Crew Rest I didn’t sleep in the afternoon thinking I would catch up during rest. Hitched up to the airport in the bus, all was going according to plan until we were ready to pushback. This is when Captain made a Purser Call (which comes across as trouble for the crew). We continued serving our pax the towels and kit bags as if nothing troubled us. Captain made a PA (Public Announcement) letting the passengers & crew know that due to technical difficulties with a leak we had to deplane all passengers for us to assess the problem and attempt a dispatch an hour and a half later. But of course this is the aviation industry, and one hour and half is more likely to turn into 3 hours and a never ending wait for both the crew and the passengers. All smiles we were. They had to pump the jet fuel out of a wing find, band aid and secure the leak before they could even repump the fuel inside the wing. And were not talking a few gallons here, were talking 20 tons. Pumping out that much fuel takes around 40 minutes alone. Once the engineers could attend the problem we were already looking at alternatives. We had 2 options. Going forward with the prospect of working over 20 hours in our uniforms and get home or staying in Osaka a night more and leaving our passengers to rot in the terminal. The latter was later ditched because it would cost the company a hell a lot of cash, and organizing such a thing in the middle of the night is not the best of things to do. So we had to cater for the passengers inside the terminal with what we had onboard.
By that time it was already 4 hours behind scheduled departure. The crew was starting to get tired and you could see passengers turning red… I can just tell you that the crew did a fab job catering and attending these passengers. They all understood what the problem was and for safety reasons we could not let the mamma fly with a leak…
5 hours after scheduled departure we finally gave clearance to board again not knowing the final decision of the engineers on ground. But in order to catch up with time as little as we could we decided to board the pax. So we did. All smiles we were. We finally got the OK GO 30 minutes later and we were taxiing for the runway. Took off and headed back to Dub-Dub. In what was a record flight time back 9 hours something we made it safe and sound in the sandpit. Passengers left the plane with smiles as we greeted them goodbye. They were thankful for the effort we put in as crew to compensate as much as we could for the inconvenience. As a matter of fact, we had to give out food to fasting passengers on ground in Osaka so they could eat before fast started.
The surprise came when everyone left the plane and only crew remained. We were greeted by 3 Cabin Crew Managers who left their offices to thank us for the hard work on this flight and awarded us with Merit Najm Awards. Najm stands for star in Arabic.
I can only say I was drenched after this flight. I didn’t sleep much and being in a uniform for 22 hours doesn’t make it smell nice either.
The big difference on these kind of flights is the crew/team you’re in. We had a good laugh no matter what (as per the pictures) and I think it showed. Nonetheless, please don’t let this happen again as my legs feel like sponges right now !
hey poppy sounds like hell on wings…am home will try and give you a bell on skype
Hey
I love your blog! I can relate….particularly drawing on previous life experince being part of the team on the ground in London.
Those days are behind me now. But I still have to manage various obstacles and yes it’s having a team that can work and laugh together that makes a difference.
Sounds like you all did really well. Keep up the good work!