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Turbulence: When you think you are going to die

 It was 2005 and my flight from Tokyo to Perth took off on time.  In those days there was a direct flight.   It was a long flight nearly 12 hours, it was a B747 and I was on the lower deck.  The plane in business class on the lower deck was almost empty, there were three of us, and everyone somehow preferred the upper deck.   We were overlying Manila in the Philipines and the Pilot came on the intercom to tell the passengers that he expected mild to medium turbulence and that it would last 30 minutes. and that it was uncomfortable but not dangerous for the aircraft.  

What followed was the worst 40 minutes of my life.   First, the cabin crew had a chance to remove all glasses, bottles and food from the cabin, they inspected the cabin four times to make sure that we all had our seat belts on.   They even had us store computers and bags away.   

during the 30 minutes, the turbulence was so heavy that I had to keep my hands on my knees to stop my legs rising and falling because the shock was painful when they hit the deck.  40 minutes later it was all over, except we had to divert to Bali four passengers had been injured.   Yes, you guessed it four young guys decided that turbulences were for pussies and so they hid that their seat belts were not attached.  They were all evacuated on stretchers in Bali, we refuelled and took off for our final destination.   We were three hours late.  


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