1st Spring 99


I got his and just had to send it to you all.
Read this, and never fly again.
Fly Air Zimbabwe?
This is a true story published in the Chicago Tribune "Travel"
section for Sunday, June 6, 1999 in a story entitled "Choppy
Skies - A white-knuckle flight on Air Zimbabwe" by Gaby Plattner. It
seemsthat Plattner was traveling with a backpacking group through Africa as
they found themselves waiting in Kariba airport for a flight to Hwange .

" Our flight was delayed, so we settled down to wait. And wait. Three
hours later, we werefinally told the plane was ready to board. Air
Zimbabwebought many of its planes second-hand from other airlines, and the one
we got into was no exception. Dirty and ancient, the mid-sizejetliner
wasclearly one that no one else had wanted. Inside, we settled into the
seatswith 80 or 90 other passengers and waited. And waited some more.

Finally,the pilot's voice came over the loudspeaker. 'We're all ready to go
ladies andgentlemen.However, we've been waiting for the copilot, and he
still hasn't
arrived. Sincewe've already waited so long, we're just going to be flying
without a
copilottoday.' There was a nervous buzz through the cabin. He continued, 'If
any ofyou feel uncomfortable with this, feel free to disembark now and Air
Zimbabwe will put you on the next available flight toHwange.'

Here he paused. 'Unfortunately, we are not sure when that will be. But
rest assured, I have flown this route hundreds of times, we have clear blue
skies, and  there are no foreseeable problems.' No one in Plattner's group,
doubtful as they might have been, wanted to wait any longer at Kariba for a
plane
that may or may not materialize, so they stayed onboard for the one-hour
flight.

Once the aircraft reached cruising altitude, the pilot came on the
loudspeaker again 'Ladies and gentlemen. I am going to use the bathroom. I
have put
the plane on auto-pilot and everything will be fine. I just don't want you
to worry.' That said, he came out of the cockpit, fastened the door open
with a rubber
band to a hook on the wall. Then he went to the bathroom.  Plattner
continues: Suddenly, we hit a
patch of turbulence. Nothing much, the cabin just shook a little for a moment.
But the rubber band snapped off with a loud 'ping!' and went sailing down the
aisle. The door promptly swung shut. A moment later, the pilot came out of
the bathroom.
When he saw the closed door, he stopped cold. I watched him from the back
and wondered what was wrong.The stewardess came  running up, and together
they both tried to open
the door. But it wouldn't budge. It slowly dawned on me that our pilot was
locked out of the cockpit.  Cockpit doors lock automatically from the
inside to prevent terrorists from entering. Without a copilot, there was
no one to open the door from the inside. By now, the rest of the passengers
had
become aware of the problem, and we watched the pilot, horrified. What
would he do?
After a moment of contemplation, the pilot hurried to the back of the
plane. He returned holding a big axe.

Without ceremony, he proceeded to chop down the cockpit door. We were
rooted to
our  seats  as we watched him.  Once he managed to chop a hole in the door,
he reached inside, unlocked the
door, and let himself back in. Then he came on the loudspeaker, his voice a
little shakier this time than before. 'Ah, ladies and gentlemen, we just
had a little problem there,
but everything is fine now. We have plans to cover every eventuality,
even pilots getting locked out of their cockpits. So relax and enjoy the
rest of the flight!



Dennis