Trouble in The Office

There Must Be a Reason

God actually read my last letter.

Last Monday, I and my teammates boarded PR 730 to Bangkok for business. While we were already 1 hour into the flight, above the South China Sea, this announcement interrupted the Xmen 3 movie I was watching:

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. I regret to inform you that there *seems* to be fire in one of the engines. It may be a false alarm but, for safety reasons we shall be flying back to Manila. We shall keep you updated. Thank you very much."

The plane became very very quiet. And to think they've just served lunch, I don't think anybody liked their food anymore.

Two of our teammates were seated at the tailend, quite able to hear snippets of the flight attendants' conversation. Something like "Confirmed daw, may sunog. ... O get ready ha? get ready..." As if that wasn't enough, since they were seated by the exit door, the FAs approached them and instructed them how to open the doors in an emergency. One of our teammates began to cry; the other one, who must have taken too much anti-biyahilo tablets before takeoff, said to her, "O kapag may mangyari, nasa ilalim lang ng upuan mo ang lifevest, ha?" sabay smile.

I began to bargain with God what I'd do if He brings us back alive. ( It was foolish, I know. And I broke my promise anyway... I am actually in hell right now.)

We arrived at Manila shaken like leaves. The moment we touched ground, a giant sigh of relief erupted from everybody, and everybody started talking about the whole thing. The group of Japanese tourist were furious. They were cursing PAL in the language they know, but even we understood. We rushed out into the terminal, thankful we didn't become a tragedy in the open sea.

We boarded a new plane 2 hours later (in hindsight, I can't believe we did). The Japanese tourists were gone. And I lost my brand new Sarge Lacuesta book....darn. I tried not to think about dying, but then it kept creeping up in the 3 hour plane ride. Why was I still alive?

That was just Monday. When Tuesday night descended on Bangkok, the Thai Military declared coup d'etat. That's another interesting story.

posted by Elyss @ 8:33 PM