Wind Chill

February 21, 2010

in Airplane Stories

When I was 18 my girlfriend, my mother and I were travelling back home to the UK after a wonderful adventure on Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa. We would be flying to Manchester in the UK, in a total three hour flight. I had a rather painful sunburn on my face which was very hot, but little did I realise that we would all be getting cooled off a little too much!

When we boarded we discovered that we were unlucky enough to be seated at the very front of the middle rows of seats with a wall right in front of us, leaving little leg room. But as soon as we started to move towards the runway, there was a powerful blast of ice cold air at our feet coming from a ventilator. All we had on were summer shirts, shorts, sandals and sun glasses, so we were ill defended against the sudden temperature drop. It got worse when we were in the air; we all had our teeth chattering. Strangely the lights in the cabin had a sort of bluish effect so it made the cabin feel a bit like an ice cavern. We had to put our sweaters on for the first time in a week as it was so cold, but we could not protect our legs.

Just to put the cherry on the cake, the other passengers started to use the tiny space in front of us to move to the other aisles. We had to scrunch up to let them pass which was quite annoying as we had little space. An air hostess finally noticed this and made an announcement over the intercom for everyone to stop doing this, but of course no one listened. We finally took matters into our own hands and put our feet up against the wall, both to stop the other passengers from invading our space and to prevent our knees from freezing off. I ordered a cup of tea at the first chance I got and drank it with shaking hands as I was so cold. Now I knew how Kay felt, imprisoned in the Snow Queen’s ice castle, but thousands of feet up in the air. When we finally landed in Manchester, we got off the plane as soon as possible and were in desperate need of a hot drink!

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

Demotage February 21, 2010 at 6:27 pm

You should have poured the tea on your knees.

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tdf February 22, 2010 at 5:23 am

I have news for you. Planes are cold. You should dress accordingly.

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Increasedosologist February 22, 2010 at 6:07 am

I bet you could have easily got free liquor for this from FA to keep you warm for the flight.

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Bob February 22, 2010 at 1:24 pm

Maybe the FA herself could have kept him warm!

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rerere February 22, 2010 at 1:25 pm

WTF?

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rerere February 22, 2010 at 9:33 am

Did you see the KLM or Pan Am plane?

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Author February 22, 2010 at 10:07 am

I'm afraid I havent rerere, what are they all about?

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rerere February 22, 2010 at 12:22 pm

Tenerife is the airport where the KLM plane plowed into the Pan Am plane after being diverted there after the bomb scare at Las Palmas airport back in 1979.

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Jaci September 15, 2010 at 12:01 pm

It was actually 1977, not 1979.

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Morgan September 14, 2010 at 9:57 pm

The Tenerife Disaster was & is,to this day,the worst aviation disaster in history. All on board the KLM flight perished except for 1 lady that didn't re board in Tenerife. It wasn't very many survivors on the Pan Am flight.

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James September 15, 2010 at 6:53 am

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