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Agne
05-31-2005, 01:21 PM
I keep a diary everytime I go on holiday. This flight report is taken by my last trip to Florida, and it is a real time report. I didn't know this website. I think that I would face up things in a different way now. I added some notes (in brackets) when I translated it.

November 25th 2004 (the day before)

I am feeling more and more nervous. I DON'T want to die !! I wish everything had already finished, and my holiday already passed. My heart is going mad, and I am sick. I wonder why I go always looking for trouble. Why do I always persuade myself to fly? I am afraid. I am terrified.

I am crying. I don't want to go, I would give everything to stay. But I don't want to spoil Claudio's holiday. I am sure: if I can't do this now, I won't do it anymore and I won't travel anymore. I know !! But I don't want to go.
I wish I had a temperature: 39°C at least, so I would be justified. (102°F).

(Note: the day before a flight I am always in despair and exaggerate things)

November 26th 2004 (BA 2559, Bologna-London, B737 seat 22A)

Here I am, on a plane again. My writing reveals my agitation. More than an hour before landing, and I don't know how to spend all this time, and the 10 hours from London to Orlando. I try not to check the time each minute. I can write down what happened this morning: I woke up at 3,45 am. I didn't sleep well last night, or better, I didn't sleep at all. We left the house at 4,20 and my fear of flying became a fear of driving, because my dad drove at 140 km/h in the center of my town. We arrived early. At the check in counter we started having problems: they wrote down a wrong name on my dad's ticket, so it wasn't valid anymore. We waited an hour. When the problem seemed to be solved, we passed the security controls and ran to the gate: they were calling our flight !! BUT a voice called my father back to the check in. We were going to miss the flight. And the plane waited for us! It had never happened, that a plane waited for me. Thank you plane. But now PLEASE take me to London !
I can't believe it: it has taken only 10 minutes to write this. ONE HOUR before landing.
I am becoming paranoid: planes shoot past us outside. They are going to run into us !! I am afraid it is going to start terrible turbulence. The guy next to me is suspicious. What if he is an hijacker? Yes, I know: at the moment I can't be reasonable.

(Note: I have a fervid imagination)

November 26th 2004 (BA 2037, London-Orlando, B777 seat 18F)

8,40 pm Italy, 7,40 pm London, 2,40 pm Orlando.
Only 1 hour and 36 min and I will be on the ground. It will be sunny and warm.
The flight has gone well, except for little turbulence. I am quite calm but we have not landed yet, so I don't say anything. I had meat and mashed potatoes for dinner (or for lunch?).
This trip is endless: I have watched twice Monster inc, listened 4 times to Radiohead, eaten, walked around, read. This morning is so distant that it seems yesterday. We are flying over Bermuda. Bermuda is the place where plane crash and boats sink, isn't it?
Oh mamma, the plane is shaking. It is going up and down, I don't know what to do!!

(Note: it was only light turbulence. I was very scared, but the flight attendants kept on walking and serving drinks, and people (except me) didn't even seem to notice it. The flight went well. Some moments I was scared, some others just bored)

December 4th 2004 (BA 2036 Orlando-London, B777 seat 38C)

The holiday has already ended. I am dizzy. Turbulence has just finished: the plane was going up and down, left and right. The flight attendants stopped serving dinner. I was petrified and couldn't write. Even because I had a glass of wine in my hand, and couldn't put it down without spilling everything. I drank wine and I know I should not have done it. Now I feel dizzy and scared at the same time. Good !
We had meat and mashed potatoes for dinner, once again. I didn't eat this time, it was impossible during turbulence: I didn't want to put a fork in my eyes. And yes, I was too scared.
It is dark outside, they are all sleeping and I feel lonely. I am trying to watch Spiderman.

(Note: I think we hit moderate turbulence. There were lightning outside. People were not scared, but gave little yells like people do in roller coasters (ihh, uhh). I was scared to death and was convinced to die. After boarding I had told the FA I was afraid of flying. He was so nice: as turbulence started, he came to me to check if I was ok, and told me there was NO reason to worry about. When turbulence finished, he came to me again and shook my hand.
I was also funny. When I am scared, I try to think, to concentrate on something. So I started doing english exercises, I spoke english with the only italian hostess on the plane :"Excuse me, is it NORMAL?". I started speaking my region's dialect. I also challenged all my dad's friends to a tennis match, saying something like "If I come home alive, I swear I will beat you all"
The flight from London to Bologna was so short compared to Orlando-London, that I didn't even realize to be on a plane. We took off and..Puff !! we landed).

MarcoAviator
05-31-2005, 01:34 PM
Ah ... memories.

Very nice report!

Yes, Atlantic crossings are ENDLESS!!!

You sit there terrified for an hour ... chekc your watch and with horror you realize that just an hour went by ...

Then you check your watch again, 45 seconds have passed. And you stare at it in horror: 45 seconds? It felt like another hour! I can't keep going on like this if every 45 seconds feel like another hour. Especially since every second has a concrete chance that we are going to crash and die.

45 more seconds later you are telling yourself the same thing.

It sounds like you go through the same thing I go through.

Only 9 hours to go.

And yes, the worse is when everybody is asleep in turbulence and you feel like saying "we are going to die!!!! what are you people doing sleeping???" Only you are too scared to even open your mouth.

Every little bump is mulitplied by 10 ... it feels like the plane will come apart. Even light turbulence that the FAs barely notice.

Very good report Agne ... much similar to what I feel.

Passenger Mark
06-01-2005, 12:30 AM
Agne,

What a great Flight Report!!!

I like the journal style!

Thank you for sharing!

Agne
06-01-2005, 12:25 PM
Thank you !

Marco: same here! I check my watch each minute. And I stare at the map in the little monitor in front of me (instead of watching films) with altitude, speed, wind, and....remaining time. It kills me. My face goes from :eek: to :mg: and :shocked:. And my boyfriend's face: :shakehead:loco::boxer::yawn:
Do you fly Alitalia when you come to Italy? Is it true that they have video games on board? Or was it Eurofly? Oh, if I only had tetris or pacman.

MarcoAviator
06-01-2005, 01:12 PM
I flew Alitalia a couple of times but I absolutely totally hate it.

I flew Continental last time and it was really good. (I mean I was still terrified out of my head with my wife going "Stop looking at the map, you are not going to make the plane move any faster looking at it!!!" )

FAs were nice(er ... than Alitalia's). The pilots were professional and polite, etc.

Continental had games ... Alitalia didn't.

Agne
06-02-2005, 07:33 AM
I have never flown with Alitalia, except for short flights here in Italy.
My friends went to Honduras last year with Alitalia. They told me that all the FAs, after the meal service,go to sleep and if you want a glass of water you have to stand up, go to the back of the plane and take it yourself. If you dare call them they come and look at you this way :fuming:
I flew Continental, British Airways and this summer I will fly with KLM, for the first time. I hope they have games !:tongue: