How to get 140 passengers on to an 84 seater aircraft.

It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon in April 1979 at Caledonian Airways in Gatwick Airport.   Only two movements scheduled.  A B707 at 1700 going to Hong Kong, with Chinese seamen, after several ships did a crew change in London and a 1-11 going to Ibiza at 2200, chartered by Club 18-21, low-lives who were considered by the cabin crews all to be escapees from prison.

I am in our ramp office, on the South Finger, which had a great ground floor view of what was on the move.  The Hong Kong B707 was on the original, Central Finger and the 1-11 was right there, nosed in outside the window. Just sitting there, steps on, doors open and going nowhere for the moment. 

The floors above the office were notoriously thin, so whenever an aircraft arrived or departed down our finger, there would be thunderous footsteps above.   Somehow, I am the only person in the office at that moment and suddenly there are the footsteps overhead of a thundering herd.  Seemed odd, as no aircraft had just arrived and there was a dearth of other aircraft out there.  

Outside the window, to my horror, I see a growing crowd of what could only be described as Chinese seamen.  They are pointing at the 1-11.   For once, my brain spun in to action.  These are OUR Chinese seamen, who have decided not to wait for the p.a. to invite them to board much later on and have become an autonomous group and we can see a plane and it says Caledonian on the side, therefore it must be ours.

I charged out of the office on to the ramp.  They were already starting to board via the front steps and were as unstoppable as killer ants.  I ran around the wing and hurtled up the ventral stairs and managed to get in to the cabin before any of them had tried to work out where their seat numbers were.   Doing my best flight attendant two arms visual signs for evacuating an aircraft, I waved at them and yelled “COME WITH ME” beckoning like crazy, so they did.

In the end, 140 non English-speaking passengers walked up the front steps of an aircraft, came all the way down the cabin and exited via the rear steps and went back in to the terminal to await their flight.

The Gatwick ramp authorities did call to ask just what we were up to and I said it was just a drill to make sure our passengers knew how to get out of an aircraft.   My two best staff, Russell and Reevesy, turned up later, having been on an extended lunch break.  “Anything going on”?   “Not much”, I said.

So, the answer to the header question is:  DON’T LET THEM SIT DOWN.