If the name isn’t suggestive enough, the details are. Where do I start:–the security? (you beep, you go, no worries) –the gate area? (what gate area?, just walk out on the tarmac when you get called, find your plane and walk those stairs up yourself! Try not to get deaf in the process, the engines are running.) –the plane itself? (a 727, which is nice, not a prop for all I care, but the signs are in Spanish – get my drift – it was probably bought used from Latin America….after how many years of service and maintenance? - what maintenance?) –the food? (day old donuts wrapped in plastic…..) which I always eat just so that I wouldn’t chew on my fingernails…..One nice thing though, the pilots are European. The company is part owned by a Serbian corporation, or so I’ve heard (it’s comforting, so I believe it). You have no idea how handsome and capable a middle-aged Serbian pilot looks when you are 26,000 feet in the air! It’s the longest 55 minute flight I’ve ever taken.Needless to say, we do not fly approximately 75% of the local carriers (UN doesn’t fly any, they charter planes….). We do not fly in the afternoon during rainy season (…tried landing in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm??)Yes, and we don’t drive (long distances across country) because of road blocks (and paying bribes associated with running into them) and the risk of armed robbery. (Although our instructions are pretty clear – give the car, save your life. Not quite sure what I would do in the middle of the bush without a car!) Last Wednesday, their Lagos-bound plane crashed at the airport. The front wheel “refused” to open, according to local newspapers. Noone hurt, but man, this is scary.
