Mike Mahon

Page Nine

http://www.lifehistoriesarchive.com/Files/MMS23.pdf

'There was really no such thing as weather forecasting as none of the airports had communication with each other '

'Where else could you take off from a remote airport and fly at low level over the countryside dodging hillocks and trees in a Boeing 737 at 300 knots! '

'We mostly used the HF radio in the aircraft to call Berna Radio in Switzerland and they could patch a phone call to anywhere in the world'

'It was many months later when the new timetable was eventually printed that we realized that we were supposed to operate the other way around - and no one had noticed '

'We could hear some explosions and gunfire from the direction of the town, so needed no persuasion to stay put'

'Even safely on the ground it was chaos and eventually the air traffic controller gave up and declared the airport closed '