While
chatting with my Polish friend I decided very impulsively to take a cheap
flight to visit Gdansk, a city in Poland that I really appreciated when passing
through it in the summer of 2007.
At Eindhoven
airport, I noticed this guy – travelling alone, just like myself – who was
nervously walking around and pushing people when queuing up to board the plane.
The young man didn’t bother me too much, so I didn’t pay any extra attention to
his behavior.
Somehow he
managed to get a whole row of seats to himself, but he also managed to get one
of the flight attendant’s attention. Why? I still haven’t figured that out.
Anyway, it all didn’t seem that important to me. Until we landed…
You will
have seen this before: you’re asked to remain seated until the plane has come
to a complete standstill, but everybody starts to open the overhead lockers and
a herd of passengers is running to the door, like a dog that’s been stuck in
its doghouse for weeks.
When the vehicle stopped completely and everybody was up and ready to jump off,
the well known “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking” sounded
through the intercom. We were all asked
to take our seats again, and to wait calmly for further instructions.
Four seconds later, both doors of the plane opened and a couple of heavily
armed guys took over. Three of them hopped on through the front door, and four
other ninja’s seemed to be coming out of the plane’s tail.
They immediately surrounded the guy mentioned above, and the only thing he
could do was freeze and show his hands where the ninja’s could see them.
The rest
of the crowd was then ordered to leave the plane, and as I stepped through the
door, I spotted the airport firefighters truck, blue lights flashing and 4
brave man ready to intervene.
Waiting
for my friend to pick me up, I sat down in one of the airport bars, sipping a
coffee and reading a book. When I looked up, I saw this same guy walking passed
me, carrying his hand luggage and a happy, relieved smile on his face.
Things
aren’t always what they seem. Luckily.