Memoirs from the Orange Army

The Dalaman Duty

***AUTHORS NOTE - There are two parts for this chapter which closely intertwine with each other. There are the original crew who operated the duty and the rescue crew who completed the last part of the duty. ***

This Dalaman flight started like any other normal flight. It was particularly busy as it was approximately halfway through the summer holidays and families had filled the aircraft all waiting excitedly to reach two weeks of hot sunshine and glorious golden beaches.

The crew had sold nearly all of the champagne onboard, which rarely happens, but there was only two bottles left. The champagne is stocked in the Boutique trolley and therefore it is at an ambient temperature so crew always offer to put the champagne in the ice tray for roughly ten minutes to help bring it to a nice chilled temperature.

The flight time from Gatwick to Dalaman was three hours and forty five minutes which wasn't too bad and with how busy the flight was, the time passed by very quickly. The crew were roughly one hour and fifteen minutes away from Dalaman when one of the crew was opening a bottle of champagne for a passenger. They peeled away the foil and untwisted the metal cage. As they removed the metal cage and placed it on the side, the cork popped out with a huge force from the pressure, narrowly missing their face, and it hit the Oxygen Mask Panel above the Cabin Crew jumpseat in the rear galley. The panel flipped open and the oxygen masks dropped out waiting to be deployed. A look of horror swept across the faces of the two crew in the rear galley and they quickly glanced into the cabin to check if the rest of the masks had dropped out. The two other crew were still busily serving passengers from the trolleys, all of whom were blissfully unaware of the new situation that had occurred.

One of the crew went to speak with the Cabin Manager whilst the other crew member closed the galley curtain and remained at the back to guard the oxygen masks. After speaking with the Cabin Manager, they went to go and see the situation for theirselves. It was clarified that the crew member was to stay there and guard the oxygen masks for the duration of the flight to avoid anybody activating them. The cabin manager then stowed the trolley to the front whilst the other crew member carried on with the trolley service so that they could go into the flight deck and speak with the Captain.

After a short while, the Captain came out needing to take a physiological break and took the opportunity to head down to the rear lavatory in order to also survey the occurrence. The Captain came back to the front after a few minutes and told the forward crew member to remain guarding the door as the First Officer was also wishing to come out. As they came out, the crew member instructed them to use the rear lavatory in order to also gain an opinion on the occurrence at the rear galley. The First Officer returned with a bemused look and was ready to be released back into the flight deck. After a minute or two, the Cabin Manager instructed the crew member to follow them to the rear galley. On the way down, the remaining crew member, who was still serving from a trolley, was instructed to stow the trolley and follow them to the rear galley.

All three of the crew gathered at the rear galley waiting anxiously for the Cabin Manager to deliver an update. It was then announced the Captain had decided to turn around and divert to Milan. The flight was only one hour away from Dalaman at this point and they were informed it would take another one and a half hours to reach Milan. The crew were all frustrated but the Cabin Manager instructed them to bring the trolleys out and continue with the service. The crew were in the cabin when the Captain made the PA to the passengers. The crew anxiously glanced around the cabin at the sighs of frustration bouncing around the cabin but maintained their well worn smiles and continued as best as they could.

After being bombarded by what seemed like a million questions, the Captain announced that the crew were to prepare the cabin for landing. All trolleys were stowed away and passengers were checked. The landing into Milan was a smooth one but the atmosphere seemed tense. The passengers had fallen silent. "Cabin Crew disarm your doors for arrival" broke the silence and we waited patiently for the engineers to arrive. This time allowed the passengers to bond with the crew and have a sneak preview into the flight deck which delighted many children. When everything had been fixed, the crew armed their doors ready for departure to Dalaman. An hour had been spent on the ground in Milan and then the flight time to Dalaman was going to be two hours and forty five minutes. Both the crew and passengers felt a little disheartened at the prospect of another long flight but it had to be done.