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In my younger years and for a very long time, I had the recurrent nightmare of an aeroplane taking off but unable to climb, ultimately crashing.
In the nightmare I was always a spectator, never a passenger. The aircraft was narrow-bodied, not the modern 787 of yesterday’s tragedy.
Waking from that nightmare, I was always full of apprehension. At the airport, we were periodically obliged to run through emergency procedures, but you can never be totally prepared for something like that, or know how you will react when faced with such a dreadful situation.
Luckily I completed 38 years without ever having to find out.
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It was probably my greatest fear for all those years, that I would be inadequate to such a task, that I would make someone’s darkest day worse through my ineptitude.
Long ago I was asked by the crew of one of our flights to assist a woman travelling for compassionate reasons.
As we walked down to the customs hall, she seemed to drag her feet and she told me her story.
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Her best friend had been murdered and she was on her way to see the woman’s elderly mother, to break the news to her.
“You know”, she said, “until I leave the customs hall it isn’t real, but when I get out there I have to face it.”
That woman’s story stuck with me and I have often thought of her since.
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Aeroplane crashes, or any other kind for that matter, are disturbing.
These days, the moment such an event takes place, advisors are immediately on hand to offer their expert opinions as to the cause.
It feels unhelpful and irresponsible.
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Looking for more cheerful subjects, we went once more to check on the ospreys.
Both nests were occupied.
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Hard to focus from a distance but nice to know both nests are active and contain babies.
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The wildfire smoke cleared and we had a brief glimpse of blue before it all turned grey again.
The return of bad weather or smoke, who knows?
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Years ago, January and February were the months I liked least because snow made that life tedious.
In this life June and July are my least favourites. It’s about the light and the atmosphere, I think.
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Tomorrow we’ll be halfway through June and the wretched parade will have happened, presumably.
Something about that fills me with apprehension too.
Good to see the Ospreys. In the late 1980s, I was on an Aeroflot internal flight into Tashkent. It turned out to be a ‘wheels up’ emergency landing, and we were told to brace for impact. Unfortunately, they told us in Russian, so me and my girlfriend at the time only knew from watching the panic in the cabin. I will never forget the feel of that impact, or the scraping sound as the large jet slid down the runway. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, and of course it was not reported on worldwide media.
Best wishes, Pete.
The horror unfolding in Ahmedabad, India, would leave mark on anyone watching the news. You were very lucky not to experience any tragic events. There, so far the number of dead is 290. You are safe, Carolyn, in your beautiful house and even insect ridden field!
Joanna
There are more and more cameras above bird nests to watch live as the young feed and grow.
I found these, above two osprey nests :
https://www.essonne.fr/cadre-de-vie-environnement/patrimoine-naturel/webcams
Further down there are videos from other bird cameras.
Thank you for this!
It is impossible to know how any of us will react in such emergencies, and also impossible to imagine the horrors all those people went through. I just hope that their end was very quick.
I know that your chance of being in a car accident is much greater than a plane crash, but I’m more anxious when I’m on a plane than in a car. It was a horrible accident – I can’t even imagine what emotional trauma the sole survivor of the plane must be going through. I prefer to rather concentrate on your beautiful osprey nest photos.