I have never been scared of flying. Until today that is, when I was ushered up the stairs of a dilapidated Soviet airplane which looked like it belonged in an aviation museum rather than on a functioning runway.
Until that moment my sense of alarm had been coupled with slight bemusement, caused by the fact that million dollar US aircraft were juxtaposed with tiny Kyrgyz aircraft that had seen better days and in all likelihood probably no restoration and minimal maintenance. When confronted with this picture of military and economic wealth versus an ex-Soviet state struggling to survive, it is easy to see why the government of Kyrgyzstan voted this week to rid the US of their Manas airbase. When faced with aid from Russia versus little more than a handshake from the US it’s possible that this action could have been precipitated by a little less bravado and a little more caring.
Upon being seated I attempted to lean back on the carpeted faded grey chair. This turned out to be a mistake. The mechanism controlling the chair back had apparently failed and I had no option but to spend the entire journey either in a horizontal position or without leaning back on the chair at all. I chose the latter.
Despite the lack of safety demonstrations and the state of the aircraft, though it must be admitted I have an untrained eye when it comes to aviation, the flight proceeded as a flight over European airspace would have done. It is worth remembering at this point that Kyrgyz air, along with Uzbek and Tajik airlines, are banned from flying in European airspace.
Mid way into the flight an airhostess in remarkably tight shiny black leather trousers offered me tea, water or some fizzy sweet drink that looked fairly unappetising. I requested green tea, primarily because I couldn’t remember the word for black in Russian, and was proven to be the least Central Asian person on the plane.
Was this due to my lack of Russian and/or Kyrgyz? Or perhaps my flat shoes in comparison to every other woman with heels and impeccable makeup?
You would be forgiven for assuming these factors as indicating my non-Kyrgyz status. However, what marked me out as different was the fact that after carefully ascertaining that the tea was still rather hot and scalding my tongue in the process I decided to wait until it had cooled down before proceeding further. Now I am no tea addict but I consume at least two cups a day, so when I say ‘cooled down’ I don’t mean I was waiting until it was lukewarm. Imagine my astonishment then when the airhostess had finished serving the forty or so passengers and immediately returned to collect empty cups. Sure enough every person on the plane had managed to down their boiling tea the same way they down vodka. This was an impressive feat and I wondered whether the British knew they had competition for their status as the nation of tea drinkers..
Had my language skills been better I would have asked the man sitting next to me what he thought about Britain, its ally the USA, and the closure of the Manus airbase. This closure is the fourth time Kyrgyzstan has been on the front page of any Western paper in its own right in the past eight years. Similarly I would have loved to have asked the man across the isle from me, engrossed in examining a gaudily decorated present bought for a female, his opinions. As it is I will never know, and I am left wondering whether the 40 or so passengers aboard that aircraft realised the commotion in the press surrounding the nine US aircraft I counted on the tarmac that day, and the many more hidden from view.
Had they been aware of how heavily it was featuring in Western press, would they have wanted to add their own opinions?
As I glanced around at my fellow passengers, I suspect that million dollar demonstrations of military wealth were of secondary concern. The city we were flying to after all is in one of the poorest regions of Kyrgyzstan where ethnic conflict is rife, and the impact of food crisis is currently being mitigated by aid agencies.
My final recollections of my antique aviation experience? Dangerous it may be, but it could be argued that far more dangerous are the fighting machines heading to Afghanistan sitting side by side commercial aircraft. Besides, if its good enough for the Kyrgyz, then it’s good enough for me.
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