It was a quick decision to go an visit some friends in the Philippines last September as I had been asked by my employer to reduce my accumulated annual leave by four weeks. Gee that leaves me now with only thirteen weeks holidays due its a big decision to make whether to take it all at once or in three or four week segments. Anyway my favorite homegrown airline was not able to accommodate me on the dates that I required so I was forced to look for an alternative. As it turned out China Air was the only carrier that had seats available for the outward leg but every airline had seats available for the home bound leg.

I am an avid watcher of those air disaster TV shows that show an airline crash and then all the following investigation to determine the cause of the accident. I watch two or three of those every week and I was aware that in my mind the most common air carrier featured in those accidents seems to be China Air. So I must admit that I was more than a little bit reluctant to be flying on a China Air flight. But having exhausted all the possibilities I finally booked my return ticket to the Philippines through Taipei.

I was pleasantly suprised with the professionalism of the airline staff and the service levels throughout the journey. The cabin staff were friendly and made my eleven hour flight enjoyable and that is saying something because I am not a very relaxed passenger. The terminal in Taipei is modern and clean with all the facilities you could wish for although I did hear one red necked Aussie complaining that he couldn’t get a beer even though it was seven in the morning. It appeared to me that the terminal at Taipei was set up to be the hub for moving millions of passengers into Asia and with the slick operation there I am sure that the passengers will quickly elect to travel through Taipei on their journey to the Asian countries.

On the return journey some three weeks later everything was once again operating like a well oiled machine. I had a sleep for a couple of hours on the flight after watching a couple of movies and regained consciousness around five in the morning. The flight data showed we had lost a bit of time and around six the pilot announced that the visibility in Sydney was not all that good and he would continue to lose time planning on being there about an hour behind schedule. At this point I should mention that this was the morning of 23rd of September 2009 the day that Sydney was covered totally in a red dust storm and visibility on the ground was about five meters.

As the plane came in to land around nine am it was evident that visibility was zero as soon as we descended through the clouds. The ground could not be seen anywhere and there was just this red cover where Sydney should be. I was looking intently at the flight data particularly the speed and altitude and as we entered the red dust at about 2,500 feet I was sure that this plane was destined to end up in Botany Bay. Our speed was now reducing rapidly and through the red dust I spotted a couple of familiar landmarks that told me we were now over Marrickville about five kilometers from the airport. Our speed was so low now it felt like any moment we would just fall out of the sky. At this stage we had not been informed as to what it was but I had assumed it to be dust because of the earthy smell that was now coming from the air-conditioner. In my sixty two years of life in Sydney I had never seen anything like this and will probably never see it again.

But back to the flight, all of a sudden there were some barely distinguisable lights showing through the dust and we were about to touch down on the runway. A slight lifting of the conditions and the pilot spotted something on the tarmac and it was full power on and get out of here. As we gained height I was looking closely for what might have caused the pilot to decide to go around again and I am sure that I spotted through the dust another plane on the runway. It appeared to be at the very end of the runway so possibly it was waiting for clearance to take off. I for one am glad the pilot made the decision to go around again and right here and now I say to the pilot “thank you and well done”. I certainly would not have wanted to land under such adverse conditions and have something weighing 400 tonnes and full of jet fuel blocking the end of the tarmac.

It took about thirty minutes for the plane to do a few circuits and come in again and that was probably so the pilot could have a cup of coffee and settle his nerves. I was a total wreck after the first attempt and 30 minutes was not long enough for me to recover sufficiently to be doing this again. I constantly looked around the cabin and not one person seemed to be aware of what had occurred and that we were going to do it all again. The second approach went pretty much the same as the first clear sky above 2,500 feet and just a red blanket below with virtually no visibility whatsoever. Once again I spotted a couple of landmarks through the dust that told me we were passing over Marrickville and I braced myself for the impact I felt sure was going to occur. The light on the tarmac became visible about a hundred metres away a slight adjustment to speed and altitude and were were on the ground and slowing rapidly.

The cabin staff still seemed to be the only people on the plane that were aware of the crisis we had just gone through and the head steward was visibly white. As I left the plane I asked if I could have a word to the pilot to thank him but I was told it was not possible on this occassion. He was probably still trying to relax his grip and prise his hands off the controls. When I got back into the flow in Sydney and heard the news and read the newspaper I found out that only two planes actually landed on that morning and all others were diverted. Could it be that we did not have sufficient fuel to be diverted having used up fuel delaying our arival in Sydney?.

But the answer is not important the only important thing is I am now confident that the pilots operating for China Air are world standard and cool under pressure and the terrible crash record that China Air appears to have could well be just equiptment failure that can happen to any of the carriers. I will use China Air again because they are good and can teach some of the other carriers a thing or two about looking after their passengers.

Tags: Accidents, Air Carrier, Air Disaster, Air Flight, Airline Crash, Airline Staff, Asian Countries, Aussie, Cabin Staff, China Air, Coen, Homegrown, Last September, Outward Leg, Professionalism, Return Journey, Return Ticket, Segments, Slick Operation, Taipei