I like international travel less and less, the more and more I do of it. Today's (and yesterdays) travel was more of the same. All three flights delayed, and while I am thrilled that they organized themselves to all be delayed like that, the stress was painful, and my back was in pain from those seats both in the aircraft and in the airports. It is like a torture-specialist designed them all.
So on this last leg of the trip today (and yesterday), a curious thing happened. As the plane was taking off (finally!) two rows in front of me, the three occupants in that row, had the oxygen masks from the compartment overhead, dropped down. Yes I was surprised that they actually are there too! Not only are they there, but they drop down just the way they do in the safety video you laboriously watch over and over and over.
But that is not the most curious thing. Once we reached an altitude where the airline staff was allowed to get up and move about, they all immediately came to this row, two rows in front of me, and basically accused the three passengers of tampering with the system! Of course they had not, it just dropped down about a 100 meters into the flight. None of the flight attendants were able to get the oxygen masks back into the compartment. Eventually they relocated all three of those folks to other seats, and the co-pilot himself came back and worked on this project for the whole flight . . . eventually duck taping the compartment closed.
But that was not the most curious thing. The absolute most curious thing was . . . that there were only two masks.
