Wednesday, April 15, 2009

We had a restful night in New York and got up early to take a very nice tour of New York, including a boat ride up both rivers and around the bay, ending up at the airport ready to make our final trek to Israel.

The group left JFK at 4:20, on a flight scheduled to arrive in Istanbul, Turkey, 10 hours later and then on to Tel Aviv. We had just passed the point of no return, where it was closer to go to Turkey than to return to New York, when our aircraft lost its compressor, making it impossible to maintain cabin pressure and air conditioning. The pilot quickly descended from 35,000’ to 10,000’ where everyone could breathe without cabin pressure. The change in altitude increased fuel consumption and lengthened our flight time, so we were diverted initially to Shannon, Ireland, then to Manchester, England, but finally actually landed at Heathrow Airport in England. Heathrow was also the place that had the necessary maintenance personnel to fix our problem and send us on our way. The flight to Istanbul, instead of the 10 hours it was scheduled, took about 13 hours, well beyond our connecting flight, so we were rebooked onto a 4:30 flight which worked out well and finally got to Tel Aviv at 8:00 instead of the 2:40 arrival we had originally planned.

Everyone endured the experience well, with the old aviators in the group, of which there are several, quietly kibitzing as they watched the pilot handle the various challenges. Some in our group anxiously chewed off their finger nails; a vacationing doctor was called into action and busily treated three passengers, not in our group, who got pretty ill as a consequence of the increased cabin temperature, about 80+ degrees, and the anxiety.

Turkish Airlines handled the incident with incredible professionalism, all the way from the flight crew who calmly dealt with what could have been a disastrous situation, to the cabin crew who served us as if there were nothing to worry about and the administrative folk who got us all rebooked and shepherded us onto our subsequent flights making sure we and our luggage arrived safely. The Presbypilgrims all arrived safely in Tel Aviv and happily relived the little adventure while we enjoyed a late dinner and headed to bed for a welcome night’s sleep.

~ Clergy Comment ~

The irregularities of our flight from New York to Istanbul draw two observations from me. First, as I saw the anxiety of some passengers and the repeated involvement of the doctor who sat across the aisle from me, I wondered what might be expected of pastors. Bruce was great at circulating and engaging our group, which helped them relax. But one of the ill passengers seemed to have serious enough problems that I wondered what would happen if Bruce or I were called in to do the equivalent of “administering last rights” – would a Catholic believer accept our pastoral care? What would be appropriate for a Jewish or Moslem passenger? Fortunately, the need did not require any more attention than the doctor offered, followed by the EMTs who came on board when we finally landed.

Secondly, I was impressed with our group and how they rolled with the punches as we faced multiple changes in our schedule. Fatigue certainly set in, but no one failed to maintain a positive and encouraging attitude. That bodes well for the rest of the trip. God is good.

Graig.