My first flight Experience

It was back in 1980 when I was a young factory worker in Jos, Nigeria. Ever since I was a child I admired the people that were flying in aircrafts. To me, they were both courageous and privileged. One day I told myself that I will embark on an adventure to experience a flight. I bought a ticket for a domestic flight from Jos to Kano and back.

On the day of departure, I headed to Jos airport and boarded the plane. It was an old noisy Fokker 27 aircraft with about 50 seats. For a first timer, the takeoff was frightful but I had to console myself that everything was fine as I didn’t notice any alarming reaction from other passengers who probably were already used to flying. The plane was to make a brief stopover in Kaduna before proceeding to Kano. Between Jos and Kaduna we experienced air turbulence and the noisy plane was shaking and ‘galloping’ in the air. That scared the hell out of me. I was pretty sure that I may be on my way to join my ancestors and regretted my decision to embark on this adventure.

When we landed in Kaduna an announcement was made that only passengers for Kaduna could disembark. I was envious of those disembarking and wished I could be one of them. When the aircraft was taking off for Kano, I was sitting there like a cow heading to the slaughter house. Kano can be unreasonably hot sometimes. The plane eventually landed in Kano, and I walked to exit the air conditioned aircraft. I almost ran back into the plane when I was unexpectedly hit by the hot external air. ‘Johnny just come’ was an apt description of my humble self.

I was very elated when I stepped out of the plane in one piece. I swore not to undergo that psychological torture once more. I therefore abandoned the money I paid for my return journey to Jos with the Airlines and took road transport back.