when we were flying back from Jakarta, Indonesia, on an airplane. I started to feel odd, sort of dizzy and very tired. All of a sudden the oxygen masks dropped and the stewardess ran up and down the aisle with her own portable mask on to get everyone else back to breathing. The plane apparently sprang a leak of some sort and lost air pressure. They never told us what happened, but instead of flying on to Langkawi as we were supposed to, we landed very hurriedly at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we sat for 3 hours while guys scurried around the outside of the plane. We weren’t allowed out of the plane for the entire time because we represented an incoming international flight and Kuala Lumpur did not have a customs outpost at the airport.
Several times I have been on planes when one engine suddenly starts spewing smoke or flame. The crew never seemed to be freaked out and the pilots always made soothing noises and we always landed on time. Although we always landed safely, it was never on time and the crew was never calm and the ground crew always ran out to spray the engines down as soon as we landed. On one flight to Langkawi, the co-pilot actually left the controls and came back to sit at the very back of the plane where he said the rosary over and over until we were on the ground.
Once, flying on a medium sized German-made plane, as we reached altitude all of a sudden the cabin filled with grey smoke. It was a bit panic-making, but the stewardesses insisted loudly that it was just the air conditioning and that it always did that. Eventually the smoke cleared away and we made it to our destination just fine. I guess they were right. And of course, many, many times I have been in a plane when it would suddenly drop a huge amount of smoke. Even before they started asking folks to do that I have always kept my seat belt fastened because I really don’t want to bump my head on the ceiling.
We currently live near the Headquarters for Air Training as well as a major helicopter repair facility, so several times a year a plane or a helicopter does go down. There was one time that nothing was wrong but the passengers were victims of pilot humor. And for some reason, whenever we flew on a plane the pilots always made sure to fly low and slow over any recent crash sites so we could see every detail. Tthe authorities weren’t going to be able to do anything for several hours because they had to wait until representatives of the airline in question could get there and give permission to move the plane. And, of course, they couldn’t fly in because the runway was closed. I needed to get back to Langkawi or I would skip my class, so I rallied the other passengers. 30 of us went out to the runway and pushed that sucker out of the way. At that point, the tower declared the runway open and off we went.
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