Crockham Hill February 2025 Newsletter - Flipbook - Page 14
A Memorable Moment 3 Flying in the 1980s
David Stafford
My work has taken me to some fascinating countries, thankfully before the
arrival of mass tourism. But one flight in 1989 I will never forget. On my
way home from Turkey, at 35,000 feet above somewhere in Austria, the
pilot got the tip-off that there could be a bomb on board. Of course, he
didn9t tell us that. He merely told us that we were making an unscheduled
stop at Munich. I thought it was a minor technical problem.
We proceeded to go through the usual procedure for landing but, on
touch-down, instead of rapidly decelerating, the plane careered on down
the runway to a remote spot at the end and then applied the brakes hard.
The pilot told us to make an immediate exit leaving our hand-luggage on
board. The mild speculation amongst the passengers turned rapidly to
indignation. Emerging from the plane, a fleet of buses was waiting to speed
us to a separate terminal building.
By now the passengers were angry and complaining. Then the pilot arrived
with a loudhailer. They calmed down markedly on hearing his explanation.
BA had been informed that one of its planes from Turkey that day would
have a bomb on it. I vividly remember what he said:
