My 'funny' airplane experience after the Sosoliso plane crash

"We all woke up to the shocking news that Sosoliso had crashed and killed almost everyone on board. Added to the Bellview crash of less than two months before, people, including me, became scared of air travel.  Unfortunately, I could not totally avoid it because of my job which required me to be in different parts of the city at a moment’s notice.

Less than a week after the Sosoliso crash, my business partner in Abuja called me at 4am to go over some issues we had with a contract. A top government guy was coming in for negotiations and being the technical person in our group, my partner wanted me there as the government guy was a technical person too. Of course, the quickest way to get there was by air but I was filled with trepidation; even before the air crashes, I’d hated flying but now, it terrified me.

I tried to walk through the details with my partner over the phone but he insisted that he needed me. With no choice left but to board a 7am flight to Abuja, I unhappily resigned myself to flying that morning. As I waited to board, I prayed fervently that everything would go well and we would not end up another statistic that day.

Once we boarded, I closed my eyes again for a short prayer. I was nervous and looking around, I sensed other people’s nervousness as well. As luck would have it, God answered my prayers; my partner called to say that the government guy had been called away and he was sending proxies to deal with the negotiations which meant he could deal without me so I could cancel the trip if I wanted. I was relieved. Quickly, I stood up, picked up my laptop bag and went to the door. People were still boarding so it was not too late for me to get off. The air hostess asked where I was going and I said I wanted to get off. Immediately, she looked alarmed. She told me to go back to my seat as it was against their protocols for me to get off at that time but when I insisted, she said she’d need to clear it with a higher authority.

I went back to my seat and waited. I saw the crew peering at me and after a few minutes, one of them came over and whispered that they could not let me off the plane. I was surprised. I stood up and insisted that I had to get off as I didn’t need to travel anymore. They asked why and I explained that my meeting had been cancelled. While this argument lasted, people around us began to stand up and take their stuff. One guy said he was not sticking around to find out if I had any secret information about the plane but he was getting off with me.  Many looked worried and asked if I knew something which bewildered me before it dawned that they thought I was getting off for safety fears. Everywhere got noisy and eventually, the pilot had to come out and talk to people. He got me to explain to everyone that my meeting was cancelled so I didn’t need to travel anymore and he assured that they had passed me through with just my laptop so were confident there were no security issues involved. And for the many who asked, he assured that the plane was in top form and he would not fly it otherwise because he was not willing to risk his life either.

While many were slightly pacified by this explanation, two guys still got off with me, saying they were not taking any chances. Once we got out, we walked quietly for a few seconds before three of us burst into laughter and the guys joked about being terrified of flying and happily clinging to an excuse to avoid it that morning. We waited in the airline’s office and once the plane landed, they let me go. By this time, all the airline staff was laughing along with us...but it was a relief filled laughter.

But this incident made me realize then how scared people had become. Looking back now, it was actually a very funny morning though that day, there was nothing funny about it."