15 Minutes in 'Hell's' way!

On the 1^st of October 2012, our nation Nigeria turned 52years and as a patriotic Nigerian I had joined millions of others in wishing the land of my birth a happy Independence day, of course not without complaints in between which is typical. I had a quiet independence day, was mostly indoors (Security reasons), but later that day,I went to Transcorp Hilton to pick up my ticket for my return flight to Lagos the next day (2^nd October): after being out of Lagos for about 3 weeks and Abuja being the last stop, before heading back home.

I got to the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport two hours before departure, because I wasn’t ready to take any chances: I had to be in Lagos that day.For the period of the long wait, I went on the social media, twitter precisely and exchanged tweets with friends about the aviation industry interestingly, and in the course of interaction, a friend aptly referred to Aero contractors as ‘’Molue’’ contractors and we laughed over it. I guess that huge joke didn’t prepare me for what we experienced later that day.

The flight was called and that particular plane was on flight 128 to Lagos and as a lover of the window seat, I had no difficulty getting one: My boarding pass was written out by a relation.

We boarded and I called my pick-up in Lagos, informing him that I had boarded and should be there in 50 minutes and went further to ask him about the weather and got a ‘’white flag’’  for that. With the assurance of good weather in Lagos I was relaxed the more. However we could not take off as scheduled, as the captain informed us that the airspace had been closed, due to some VIP movement. We were on ground for over 30minutes and from my window seat, I could see all the stunts by the security details and all the reception formality for the VIP, whom I suspected was Nigeria’s number one himself.

We eventually took to the skies at about 4:15pm or thereabout, for a flight that was scheduled for 3:30pm.Take off was smooth, but somehow I felt the plane was not gaining altitude as it should have (That was my mind playing games).The captain came on and intimated us of a good weather in Lagos, corroborating what my pick-up had told me earlier. About 10 minutes into the flight, the sight of the ground and the cloud layout disappeared, giving way to thick haze.The flight shuddered intermittently which was not out of the ordinary: Routine turbulence, one may say. Aero as their custom is, started their on-board supermart surprisingly, very few passengers patronized. Shortly after the sales session the captain came on again this time the weather in Lagos had suddenly changed, but as usual ‘’nothing to worry about, sit back and enjoy your flight’’ was his sign off phrase. The plane was still going through some short bouts of routine turbulence, which in my layman’s opinion was due to the thick haze.

Just when we had about 22 minutes or so to land, I observed that the ‘’routine turbulence’’  seemed to have attained a dimension of persistence and I didn’t like that one bit because it shook the plane more. I tried to remain the calm I-have-seen-it-all-before gentleman, but it didn’t work and the turbulence seemed to intensify.

What happened the minutes after that was better imagined than experienced. The captain came on again and said we were experiencing some turbulence due to the bad weather, that they will try to avoid the ‘’pockets of cloud’’, as much as they could and signed off with the usual ‘’sit back, relax,… ‘’ blah blah blah. It was as if his last statement provoked the elements the more as  it started a serious sky rollercoaster. The plane shook/shuddered to a point that the lights started flickering and I could bet that the wings were going to disintegrate. Suddenly it dropped steeply and tilted to the left, I held on to the seat tightly, not saying anything, keeping a false cool mien, just to mask my fear, but I was dying inside. Suddenly a woman shouted from the rear ‘’ Jesus, what is going on?’’ that immediately triggered a ‘’multi-house’’ response from passengers: Some blurted out in tongues, some into various dimensions of prayer, others just kept shouting Jesus!, Jesus!! A quiet 18month old boy, named Chidi, (Got his name from his mum when we were boarding) who had been quiet all through the flight suddenly began to cry; I guess he was jolted by the sudden burst of  ‘’confused’’ noise, not really because of the torture we were going through up there. A young man who happened to be of the muslim faith suddenly went into some serious prayers too; never heard them pray with so much fervency. Equally, a young foreigner, a lady, whom I believe was American because of her accent seemed to out-shout everyone else on the plane, while her heavily-tattooed  partner remained calm. I bet he was dying inside too.

I didn’t need anyone to tell me to start praying again, having done that before boarding. Normally when I fly I consciously ‘’see’’ Angels hold up the plane till we land, but as the situation got intense, the mischievous part of my mind told me they too flew off for their lives as they could not stand the turbulence...at that point I was afraid the end had come. It was an epic battle between my Faith and the seeming reality of a sudden, violent inevitability, as the aircraft which by now seemed to be flying much faster, was at the mercy of the elements, swerving from left to right and dropping in between. I wondered why the captain was quiet, when Aero flight 128 was about to go down. As if he read my thoughts, he came on and my mind was set to hear the worst which I thought I did. He explained that we were going through some heavy turbulence, but that it wasn’t beyond their control but what I thought I heard was ‘’It is beyond our control’’ at that moment I imagined what the Dana 159 went through before they eventually went down. I could bet they went through the same torture before the accident that ended their sojourn on earth. I was on the verge of switching on my mobile phone to call my folks, any of them I could reach, before the seeming inevitable, when the captain came on again telling the cabin crew led by a lady named Chinelo, to take their seat for landing. We seemed to have gone below what I term the ''belly of hell'' (For about 15 minutes) and the turbulence had suddenly reduced, I could see some rooftops and some movement on the ground, the the flight was shaking a bit and the clouds seemed quite low. On spotting my favourite rooftop in blue colour, with El Dorado boldly inscribed on it, I became more relaxed as we made to land, but my mind still played games: the runway could be slippery since it was till raining.

At exactly 5:18pm, Aero contractors flight 128, Abuja to Lagos, safely and smoothly touched down  at the runway of the International wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport and taxied to the MMA2 terminal. 

The rest?…I’m writing this piece in one piece, from the comfort of my workspace. It’s exactly 1:23pm Nigerian time and I quickly had to proofread, edit so I could put this story out there (Ignore the errors), as I’m not sure if any other passenger that was on board that flight would do so, aside from telling friends and loved ones verbally. 

By my calculations, if we had taken off from Abuja at the scheduled time,I’m sure we would not have been caught up in that rogue weather. That brings me to the issue of VIP/Presidential movement; Nigerians need to fully understand why the airspace should be closed, leaving  flights that were scheduled to land at a certain time, hovering for some serious minutes at the mercy of the elements. What if they go out of fuel? Secondly what stopped the pilot of flight 128 from going back to Abuja, or try to land at an alternative airport, instead of trying to brave it and endanger the lives of passengers by trying to be a hero. He however came out of the cockpit to bid us farewell when we landed. I shook his hands though. I’m sure that guy couldn’t have been more than 32 years by my assessment. (Youthful exuberance?). I guess, a more experienced pilot would have acted differently.

My write up cannot fully capture or put to words what we actually went through yesterday (2^nd October, 2012) in that hellish, nerve-wrecking, rollercoaster experience on Aero flight 128.

Of the truth, and I stand to re-affirm SAFETY IS OF THE LORD and I live to tell the story.

Dedicated to the Memory of the Dana 159, the loved ones they left behind, and the good people of Iju/Ishaga community.