Terror Thursday - Lightning strike at 6,000ft
What a day, what a horrible, horrible day.
You may well wonder why there was no post yesterday – here is why.
I struggled out of bed yesterday morning feeling ten times worse and giving serious thought to just crying off sick (after all I was genuinely sick) but started to feel guilty about the wasted airfare (hmmm all of £60) and of course the fact that I would spend the day wondering what was being said (I do so hate being out of the loop).
I felt a little better after a quick shower and managed to make some porridge before heading off to the airport.
The journey down was pretty straightforward and it has to be said that there was some interesting stuff mentioned during the meeting, I unfortunately continued to sniffle and weep throughout so was hardly the most stimulating or active contributor.
I had some curry for lunch from the staff canteen which gave me a bit of a boost although by that time I was ravenous for food but then it had been a whole 8 hours since breakfast, a fact I tried not to think about too much as it made my head hurt – I was only half way through the day yet I had been up for the length of a normal working day – another 4 hours and I would be ready to go to bed!!
In an amazing turn of events we finished bang to time (this never usually happens – so I should have realised something wasn’t quite right) and I got to the airport with plenty of time to join the mass gathering of cattle (I mean passengers) for the Easyjet flight home. Despite turning up with over an hour spare an spending only 20 minutes in the queue (as opposed to the usual 45 minutes) I got a boarding number in the late 90’s – obviously this was a pretty packed flight.
As I had an unusually long time before boarding (generally it’s a mad dash to the gate after getting the boarding pass as the queue was so long) I decided to go window shopping and of course ended up buying an amazingly large bar of chocolate to console myself with the next day. Little did I know how much I was going to need it!!
It was obvious the flight was pretty crowded so when I boarded I just dumped my bag in the overhead locker and took the nearest available seat which was a window seat (I usually prefer the aisle seat then you don’t get trapped in). We took off exactly to time but it was an awfully bumpy ride up so I took a peek out of the window to see what was happening as it had looked pretty calm when we boarded. Just at that moment I saw a huge flash of light like an explosion right on the starboard engine pod and heard and almighty bang and felt the plane drop about 2,000ft.
I immediately thought my number was up, I started to picture myself alongside 180 other photographs on the front page of the newspapers with the word "Tragedy" written all over them. After a few moments of blind panic the plane leveled off and the flight attendant came on the PA to say the Captain would be addressing us shortly.
A few minutes of sweating later the Captain came over the intercom to confirm we had been struck by lightning and we would be returning to Luton to be checked for damage when the storm had cleared. We circled over Luton at 6,000ft – we obviously didn’t get all that far before we were struck.
20 minutes later we landed safely at Luton and sat waiting for the technicians to inspect the plan, meanwhile the Captain came out to have a word with myself and the passenger behind me who was a bit shaken by it all. The Captain was really lovely and reassuring that everything was ok – aircraft were designed to take lightning strikes and the systems were safe etc etc. The Captain remarked that I looked pretty shaken, I pointed out it had been a long day, I had a rotten cold and had just been faced with the real possibility of death, or at least convinced myself I was about to die anyway so I had every right to look a little off colour.
A number of passengers decided they couldn’t face the fear again and requested to leave the plane and make alternative arrangements to travel, I really couldn’t blame them either but it did mean we had to wait for their luggage to be removed from the hold and a car to take them to the main terminal.
After all that the journey to Edinburgh (second attempt) was pretty uneventful, we had a long wait for a gate on arrival and by the time I got to my car it was 11pm. Goodness knows how I managed to drive home last night – I had considered a cab as I was in such bad nick but the logistics of getting my car back again were too awkward to contemplate.
When I finally arrived home I found a letter from my solicitor with a draft copy of my last will and testament - what evil irony. This was the last straw and I totally lost it, the other half managed to calm me down with the offer of going to pick up a carry out for me as I was pretty hungry and it was obvious I wasn't going to sleep at all. So I had a curry and went to bed at about 1am.
I woke up pretty late this morning and have been shaking all day; I also keep seeing white flashes of light out of the corner of my eye. Luckily I didn’t have to go anywhere, as I really was not fit to drive. I managed to get some work done but not as much as I needed to – I kept needing to take a lie down every hour as I couldn’t concentrate properly and was making massive errors.
I’m looking forward to a quiet night tonight and an early one at that!
You may well wonder why there was no post yesterday – here is why.
I struggled out of bed yesterday morning feeling ten times worse and giving serious thought to just crying off sick (after all I was genuinely sick) but started to feel guilty about the wasted airfare (hmmm all of £60) and of course the fact that I would spend the day wondering what was being said (I do so hate being out of the loop).
I felt a little better after a quick shower and managed to make some porridge before heading off to the airport.
The journey down was pretty straightforward and it has to be said that there was some interesting stuff mentioned during the meeting, I unfortunately continued to sniffle and weep throughout so was hardly the most stimulating or active contributor.
I had some curry for lunch from the staff canteen which gave me a bit of a boost although by that time I was ravenous for food but then it had been a whole 8 hours since breakfast, a fact I tried not to think about too much as it made my head hurt – I was only half way through the day yet I had been up for the length of a normal working day – another 4 hours and I would be ready to go to bed!!
In an amazing turn of events we finished bang to time (this never usually happens – so I should have realised something wasn’t quite right) and I got to the airport with plenty of time to join the mass gathering of cattle (I mean passengers) for the Easyjet flight home. Despite turning up with over an hour spare an spending only 20 minutes in the queue (as opposed to the usual 45 minutes) I got a boarding number in the late 90’s – obviously this was a pretty packed flight.
As I had an unusually long time before boarding (generally it’s a mad dash to the gate after getting the boarding pass as the queue was so long) I decided to go window shopping and of course ended up buying an amazingly large bar of chocolate to console myself with the next day. Little did I know how much I was going to need it!!
It was obvious the flight was pretty crowded so when I boarded I just dumped my bag in the overhead locker and took the nearest available seat which was a window seat (I usually prefer the aisle seat then you don’t get trapped in). We took off exactly to time but it was an awfully bumpy ride up so I took a peek out of the window to see what was happening as it had looked pretty calm when we boarded. Just at that moment I saw a huge flash of light like an explosion right on the starboard engine pod and heard and almighty bang and felt the plane drop about 2,000ft.
I immediately thought my number was up, I started to picture myself alongside 180 other photographs on the front page of the newspapers with the word "Tragedy" written all over them. After a few moments of blind panic the plane leveled off and the flight attendant came on the PA to say the Captain would be addressing us shortly.
A few minutes of sweating later the Captain came over the intercom to confirm we had been struck by lightning and we would be returning to Luton to be checked for damage when the storm had cleared. We circled over Luton at 6,000ft – we obviously didn’t get all that far before we were struck.
20 minutes later we landed safely at Luton and sat waiting for the technicians to inspect the plan, meanwhile the Captain came out to have a word with myself and the passenger behind me who was a bit shaken by it all. The Captain was really lovely and reassuring that everything was ok – aircraft were designed to take lightning strikes and the systems were safe etc etc. The Captain remarked that I looked pretty shaken, I pointed out it had been a long day, I had a rotten cold and had just been faced with the real possibility of death, or at least convinced myself I was about to die anyway so I had every right to look a little off colour.
A number of passengers decided they couldn’t face the fear again and requested to leave the plane and make alternative arrangements to travel, I really couldn’t blame them either but it did mean we had to wait for their luggage to be removed from the hold and a car to take them to the main terminal.
After all that the journey to Edinburgh (second attempt) was pretty uneventful, we had a long wait for a gate on arrival and by the time I got to my car it was 11pm. Goodness knows how I managed to drive home last night – I had considered a cab as I was in such bad nick but the logistics of getting my car back again were too awkward to contemplate.
When I finally arrived home I found a letter from my solicitor with a draft copy of my last will and testament - what evil irony. This was the last straw and I totally lost it, the other half managed to calm me down with the offer of going to pick up a carry out for me as I was pretty hungry and it was obvious I wasn't going to sleep at all. So I had a curry and went to bed at about 1am.
I woke up pretty late this morning and have been shaking all day; I also keep seeing white flashes of light out of the corner of my eye. Luckily I didn’t have to go anywhere, as I really was not fit to drive. I managed to get some work done but not as much as I needed to – I kept needing to take a lie down every hour as I couldn’t concentrate properly and was making massive errors.
I’m looking forward to a quiet night tonight and an early one at that!
posted by Running Queen @ 7:06 PM
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