Over the years I have had hundreds of flights, mainly for business. Of these almost all were OK, a few delays of a few hours, one where the plane tried to land four times in wind and fog in Ireland before diverting to a larger airport.
Once in Libya before the recent wars, I flew on a short internal flight.
The plane was extremely old and was kept together by stealing parts from two other 727 planes. Take off failed as the engines did not produce enough power. Second attempt we got off the ground. On arrival I got off the plane to be met by a soldier in uniform who stuck a gun in my belly and indicated I should get back on the plane.
(We had landed at a military base, which the flight did not normally do.)
Next take off was OK then we landed at Tripoli.
The approach was a little low in fact it was obvious we were landing before the perimeter fence.
An enormous amount of engine power, and we were over the fence past the landing zone on the runway and going very fast. Remarkably touchdown was smooth but trying to stop was not it took ages. fortunately the runway is quite long but it did take a long time to get to the terminal after turning round.
I then found that the national oil company staff were not allowed to travel on the planes, so I did the same and traveled by road each time after even though it did take 9 hours longer.
Luggage, in hundreds of flights I had two flights lose a bag. It was the same bag on two flights within a few days. (Both times the bag came bag within a day or two. I changed the bag and never lost a bag again. I never lock bags as security people can open bags including destroying the locks to do so.
I don't worry about flying at all. Peter
Wow, such a huge comment. Thanks for sharing! You were in Lybia, what did you do there? Not a safest place, I guess. I'm glad that everything went well for you, Peter. I think that after flying on an old malfunctioning plane, of course you don't worry about it at all :)
Hi, Libya was not so bad before the wars. American sanctions were difficult for the locals and entry had to be done by road. The locals were very friendly. Not many were educated but those that were had amazing education levels.
Funny we were not really supposed to be there but the oil fields were full of American engineers. Ameracan passport holders got twice as much money as everyone else.
I was there commissioning a new installation for the local power station.
I sometimes look on Google earth at the installation. It does not look like it did when I was there. Years to build and moments to destroy.
Peter
Oh, well, you are working in oil industry? My brother is a specialist too, but mostly he travels in Russia. Once he was in Serbia and Kazakhstan. What US state are you from?
I went to Russia once, quite a long time ago. I was only there a short time (2 Weeks). It was just as communism was failing, very little food, cold -22°C and grey. I am told it is much better now.
I am not from the US I am from the UK, but live on a tiny island in the Med now. When I say tiny I mean tiny, around 9 miles by 5 miles and a population of around 35,000 people if you discount the tourists.
I have gone from driving around 1000 miles a week to thinking 20 miles is a long way.
Usually we walk or cycle everywhere except in the winter when it rains for a month or so.
Which state are you from. I have been to Florida a couple of times on vacation. As we had an agent in the states, there was no reason for us to go.