New England: Friday, 31st August 2001

Written by Stephen Baines

Friday, 31 August 2001

It's been a strange day today. It started very early indeed. I'd been warned that you needed to get up early in order to get the car back to the car lot, then to the airport, get checked in, yada yada yada. 2AM I was awake. I tried to sleep, but I was too nervous at the thought of flying. 3AM I awoke again, gave up, got up, got ready, finished packing, and got in the car to the lot. Listened to some strange radio chat show, and was at the Hertz lot by 4:30am. I was at Boston Logan by just after 5am, with 45 minutes till check-in even opened. I checked in, said I was worried and nervous. Girl behind the counter didn't seem to care less, so off I tramped, through security, and pottered around the shops, getting more and more distressed. Finally I phoned home, then I panicked some more, then the girl on the gate seemed to notice, and everything started to get better. BA were absolute stars - they took me onto the plane early, I met the crew, who talked to me very nicely, I met the First Officer, who tried to reassure me, then Mark (the purser) offered to sit with me at take-off and explain what was going on, and try and reassure me, and brought me a pre-flight G&T. He said the only time he'd seen anyone more worried at take-off was when he'd had his mum on board. He did a brilliant job, and persuaded me to let go off the arm rests. Flight under way, all went well - I'm alright once it's up - and the G&Ts flowed nicely. After a good while, the First Officer came to tell me they were flying via New York, and going to fly in via Ireland and Birmingham to try and miss some bad thunderstorms. A little while later, I had an invite to the cockpit to meet the captain and the 1st Officer again. I went up, I was a little worried I was going to distract them and cause the plane to crash, but I went up. They were drinking their cups of tea, and had a pleasant chat. I was amazed at the clouds and the sky - it appeared not to be moving at all, yet the dial said over 500 knots. They explained all the redundancy, chatted, explained, reassured... They were absolutely brilliant. The flight continued, and with a favourable wind we were soon on the approach to Heathrow. Mark and one of the other cabin crew (who's name I've forgotten) took my mind off it all with a very funny Patsy impression. They talked me through the landing, and persuaded me to have the blind open - and they were right, it did feel better like that. I landed, felt safe and secure, and not anywhere near as scared as before. Maybe this time I have conquered it.