5
An unforgetable flight
Posted by Claudia Moser
on
8:27 PM
On the way back from Tallinn towards Frankfurt with the normal LH plane.
No issues around boarding time, the plane from Germany lands on time, 7 minutes after the announced hour. So together with my colleague we go relaxed towards the gate. Since I did not find fast enough my pass, my colleague goes ahead. The lady takes his boarding document, and suddenly says there are some changes. I look on her papers and notice that both him and myself are re-seated and upgraded on business. Me 3D, he 3A, so it looked like a good flight! But ... My colleague gets his boarding document with 20D, which surprises both, so I suggest that he should talk with the stewardess. He agrees, I take a seat in the plane, and it takes some time until he enters the cabin as well, no change, still 20D, so economy.
Well I thought, it looks like we will not chat during the flight and I wait the take off. But then suddenly despite the fact that we were on the way to the runway, there was a commotion in the plane. The 2 stewardess and the purser start to count the passengers at least 10 times. And then the pilot does the same. I ask the purser what is going on, she replies that they miss 2 passengers or maybe just one. The ground personnel is confused and so are they.
Suddendly on seat 4A a lady has a diabetic attack. The husband panics, asks the purser for sugar or something containing sugar. Lots of fruit, Coke and chocolate go towards the lady and it seems like this situation is under control.
Nevertheless the comotion is still on, the counting keeps on happening.
At the same time, one stewardess starts to move a family from row 9 to row 10. A verbal fight! And then again the family is asked to move once more. No change, purser stressed, pilot comes. Time is passing.
And then I hear the pilot telling the purser that he has enough, too much time is gone, the 3 people must go out of the plane.
We dock, and 7 security staff come in, including guns and they escort the father, the mother (with 10 inch black nails) and a crying daughter outside the plane. And then silence and the announcement for takeoff.
While I was getting my water, the purser was kind enough to explain what happen. So it all started with the broken seat 10A, just behind row 9 emergency. The pilot decided that that seat will not be oocupied so the reason of all the re-seating. And then they missed 2 people, situation generated by 2 children who were seating in their mothers lap. But then they realised that the row 9 was occupied by a 12 year old girl and her family who spoke no English which is against the rules. And with the diabetis stress and missing person, they accidentaly told them to go on row 10 where they shouldn't have since one seat was broken. And since they did not understand English and were rather stubborn, they complained and were not persuaded to re-move not even by the pilot, so he decided that they should go out.
All of this caused 90 minutes delay and a lot of stress for the passengers with connection flights (according to the purser 90% of the 120 on the plane).
I honestly will never forget this flight, it was worth Murphy's law.
But in the end we did have an amazing adventure! And by the way, thank you Marianna, a great LH purser!
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No issues around boarding time, the plane from Germany lands on time, 7 minutes after the announced hour. So together with my colleague we go relaxed towards the gate. Since I did not find fast enough my pass, my colleague goes ahead. The lady takes his boarding document, and suddenly says there are some changes. I look on her papers and notice that both him and myself are re-seated and upgraded on business. Me 3D, he 3A, so it looked like a good flight! But ... My colleague gets his boarding document with 20D, which surprises both, so I suggest that he should talk with the stewardess. He agrees, I take a seat in the plane, and it takes some time until he enters the cabin as well, no change, still 20D, so economy.
Well I thought, it looks like we will not chat during the flight and I wait the take off. But then suddenly despite the fact that we were on the way to the runway, there was a commotion in the plane. The 2 stewardess and the purser start to count the passengers at least 10 times. And then the pilot does the same. I ask the purser what is going on, she replies that they miss 2 passengers or maybe just one. The ground personnel is confused and so are they.
Suddendly on seat 4A a lady has a diabetic attack. The husband panics, asks the purser for sugar or something containing sugar. Lots of fruit, Coke and chocolate go towards the lady and it seems like this situation is under control.
Nevertheless the comotion is still on, the counting keeps on happening.
At the same time, one stewardess starts to move a family from row 9 to row 10. A verbal fight! And then again the family is asked to move once more. No change, purser stressed, pilot comes. Time is passing.
And then I hear the pilot telling the purser that he has enough, too much time is gone, the 3 people must go out of the plane.
We dock, and 7 security staff come in, including guns and they escort the father, the mother (with 10 inch black nails) and a crying daughter outside the plane. And then silence and the announcement for takeoff.
While I was getting my water, the purser was kind enough to explain what happen. So it all started with the broken seat 10A, just behind row 9 emergency. The pilot decided that that seat will not be oocupied so the reason of all the re-seating. And then they missed 2 people, situation generated by 2 children who were seating in their mothers lap. But then they realised that the row 9 was occupied by a 12 year old girl and her family who spoke no English which is against the rules. And with the diabetis stress and missing person, they accidentaly told them to go on row 10 where they shouldn't have since one seat was broken. And since they did not understand English and were rather stubborn, they complained and were not persuaded to re-move not even by the pilot, so he decided that they should go out.
All of this caused 90 minutes delay and a lot of stress for the passengers with connection flights (according to the purser 90% of the 120 on the plane).
I honestly will never forget this flight, it was worth Murphy's law.
But in the end we did have an amazing adventure! And by the way, thank you Marianna, a great LH purser!
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