Journeys

Time for a turnaround

Just a few years ago, I was sitting on an EasyJet A320 with my family looking forward to a week’s holiday on Santorini, a Greek island that is close to my heart, having lived and worked there 25 years ago. We were set to visit my sister and her family, and this was to be the first time all six of us had travelled abroad by plane. Having worked in the airlines as a flight attendant, dispatcher and eventually a crew manager, this was poignant for me as it was the first time I had been anywhere near an airliner since leaving the airline industry for good, a couple of years earlier.

It was about 8:30pm local and the late-October skies were dark. I was busy interpreting the shoreline lights over Kamari, the resort that you pass over on a one-mile final, and realised we were a little high. Abruptly, we started to climb out, and my wife looked worriedly at me: “Is this normal, Si?”