If you want to watch video footage of the plane crash that occurred in Kathmandu, killing 18 people, then I can report that it’s all there on the internet. I have seen it, courtesy of CNN’s rolling coverage, and I am not going to pretend I averted my gaze or switched off immediately afterwards. As with the endless film loop of the 9/11 mass murders in New York City, I found myself watching it over and over again until I gave my head a big wobble and remembered that I had watched 18 people die in the most horrific circumstances.
According to their website, the airline concerned, Saurya Airlines uses the strapline, ‘You are in good hands‘. Hmm. Maybe not when flying to or from Nepal, which has just about the worst safety record in the world. So bad is the safety record of their planes, their airlines are not allowed to fly over Europe.
I have always had a morbid fascination with plane crashes, even when I had a fear of flying. And even today if there’s an episode of Air Crash Investigation on some obscure TV station, I often tune in to watch. Watching a big jet take off makes you think, how is that possible? These days, I have a vague idea of the theory of flight and a great deal of faith in actual experts who have a deep understanding.
It seemed, when growing up, there was a plane crash every few days. It was as if were taking a chance if you flew anywhere when in truth you were in far bigger danger travelling to the airport than you were flying from it. But certain incidents played havoc with the irrational part of my brain.
My. first flight was on an Air Canada MacDonnell Douglas DC8 travelling from London Heathrow to Halifax, the one in Nova Scotia, not old Scotia (Scotland), although we did have two stops en route, first at Prestwick in Scotland and the second at Gander in Newfoundland. The noise from the four engines was terrific, even from inside the cabin, and it felt like every nut and bolt was likely to shake itself free. To my surprise, we did not plummet to a terrible death as the captain eased back the throttles, but I was happy when we finally reached our destination.
In 1988, I flew to Tenerife and on the return flight liquid started pouring out of one of the overhead lockers. Oh my God – a fuel leak. We were doomed. It turned out that modern aircraft did not tend to store fuel inside the cabin and all that had happened was a wine bottle had managed to open itself and deposited its contents on the passengers below.
Another flight to Tenerife three years later and just as the plane roared along the runway at Bristol to take off, there was a loud ‘BOOM!’ sound. I spent the next three hours fretting about what had happened – were we flying on one engine? – and eventually the captain came on the tannoy and explained that – and here I struggle with the technicalities – the engines had been slightly out of synch and this had created the ‘BOOM!’ but that there was nothing to worry about. Until he came on again and explained that due to the appearance of holes in the runway at Tenerife we were diverting to Gran Canaria.
Years before, we had been on a Dan Air 737 from Gatwick to Beziers in France when, upon rotation, the door to the flight deck flew open and you could see the captain leaning back enjoying a deep puff from a cigarette. Hopefully, the co-pilot was flying the plane at the time but I never found out.
Finally, returning from Corfu to Bristol on an ancient Boeing 707, which had replaced the MD83 leased by the struggling carrier Paramount (‘Britain’s first non-smoking airline), took off and as it did so my seat collapsed and I was flat on my back on the floor. Once we were airborne, I was moved to another seat but I was in a slight state of shock for the rest of the flight.
All minor, trivial, non-incidents, for sure, but they all shook me up to some extent or other. Slowly, but surely, I begun to realise that flying was perfectly all right and safe and these days I am totally relaxed at all stages, apart from when I am in the queue at check-in.
Today’s news from Kathmandu is a rare story, unless you are flying in and out of Nepal, in which case you are probably going to survive but there is a fair chance you might not make it at all.
The irony of the Saurya flight is that it was headed for Pokhara as part of a maintenance check and among those killed in the crash were ‘technical staff‘. Sadly, it looks like the maintenance check may have been somewhat overdue.
I wish I hadn’t watched the video of the crash. No because I’m traumatised by it or anything like that, but it was pretty sick of me to do so. I guess that the way my brain saw it meant that I didn’t actually see the people die, I just knew they had. In retrospect, that doesn’t make it any better.
Years ago, before the internet age, you would never see incidents like this but these days disaster porn, because that’s what it is, can be found almost anywhere. I’m pretty sure that’s not a good thing but unfortunately you can’t uninvent the internet and I guess we’re stuck with it forever and maybe worse.
In truth, it was never flying I was scared of. It was crashing. Seeing this footage reminded me why.