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• Friday, January 20, 2006 07:30 AM

  Airline Reaction to Anomolies

  I enjoyed your article, as usual. Your comments about how airlines react to anomolies reminds me of an amusing situation I encountered several years ago in Caracas.

  The aircraft to be used for the Caracas-London flight was brought to the gate well before boarding time. At Caracas the gates all have plate glass windows so passengers can see the ramp, aircraft, etc.

  The boarding lounge was full of British eco-tourists on their way home. The left hand wing of the aircraft had a prominent dent in the leading edge, I guess from a bird strike. Mild interest in this on the part of the passengers quickly morphed into full scale alarm and demands that the airplane be replaced. The passengers were in an uproar by the time someone from Viasa came to the podium to announce a short delay since the flight was to be operated by a "substitute" aircraft.

  Well, the relief in the boarding lounge was palpable, everyone re-assumed their holiday spirit. The plane was removed and dusk started to fall. Once the sun went down and it was not easy to see out the windows, the new aircraft was brought to the gate and everyone got on and flew uneventfully to London.

  As a contractor to Viasa at the time, I knew it had only five DC-10s and no "substitute" aircraft available! We flew home on the same aircraft that had alarmed all the tourists. I have always felt this was a particularly clever way of making lemons into lemonade!

  Colin Gibson

  —colingibson Read colingibson's other letters
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