‘No wonder Filipino pilots are sought after by international airlines. They’re great at avoiding turbulence.’
IT’S what many airline passengers dread: the seatbelt sign lights up, telling you the captain wants everyone seated and buckled down. And then the flight attendant makes the announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts as the captain has switched on the fasten seatbelt sign in anticipation of some turbulence…”
At this point, almost all conversation ceases.
But what if it is the captain himself who tells everyone, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts as we are expecting moderate turbulence.”
Trust me, you can hear a pin drop. As well as your seatmate’s heartbeat.
Two days ago, flying at about 24,000 feet and descending towards Palawan, the captain of our Manila to Puerto Princesa PAL flight (PR 2785) suddenly came on the public address system after switching on the seatbelt sign to tell us exactly that. We should return to our seats and fasten our seatbelts, he said, and expect moderate turbulence. It was an announcement that was a bit alarming on two counts even for someone like me who gets to fly a bit more often than the regular Juan: first, not only did the captain not wait for the lead crew member to make the announcement but made it himself, and second, he used the word “moderate.”
But I was not a bit surprised as I always track my flights through the app Flightradar24, which tells me where we are throughout the journey and also gives me an overview of the weather ahead. And before boarding the flight (delayed from 11:30 to 1 p.m.), I knew we were flying into cloudy skies as we approached Palawan. Using my iPhone’s camera, I could see through my window that, indeed, there were thick clouds ahead and going through those clouds would mean some shaking. “Moderate,” the captain said.
I pulled my seatbelt right around my waist, even if it meant cutting off blood flow to my legs.
Then skill took over.
Clouds are huge masses of vapor that can be sources of discomfort to fliers and when they are huge and thick, the discomfort can sometimes be terrifying. But clouds are also not big compact masses; they have thicker parts and thinner parts and sometimes they have parts so thin you can see through them and even pass through them. Or at their edges.
And that’s what we did. We began slight turns here and slight turns then and through the window, I could see blue sky beyond some very thick cloud patches, and I knew that it was towards the clear skies that our captain was carefully maneuvering our aircraft. And so able was she that had I been holding a cup of coffee filled to the brim, not one drop would have spilled as we descended towards Puerto Princesa, passing through the thin or open sections of those big dark clouds.
You feel more shaking when you drive down EDSA than when we were descending towards the capital city of Palawan, seatbelts pulled tight in anticipation of “moderate turbulence.”
No wonder Filipino pilots are sought after by international airlines. They’re great at avoiding turbulence.
If only our politicians were the same!
