It was truly an aweful ride back home I can tell you that much. I escaped by a hair’s width EFYALOFYOU’s flaming ash wrath. If I understood correctly, Schiphol airport was closed this morning from around 06:00 until 13:00 hours, with a definite effect on international flights. Meanwhile while I was at the gate, they placed a sign there that said “Due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the following flights might return to Narita or divert to Dusseldorf, Paris, etc…. “ I asked a Dutch gentlemen who spoke to the JAL staff earlier. They said “they didn’t know”. And here’s a Dutch article run through google translate.
We boarded 20 minutes late which is unusual for JAL anyways, priding to be the most punctual airline. I guess they were still flipping a coin on whether to go or not. I saw one of the staff head over to the sign to write down what appears to have been the exact same English message to be called over the gate intercom a while later. This is how that went:
“Due to the…. volcanic-u… erup … eruption in Iceland, the following-u …. flights might-oh return to Narita ….. or *($&*#$&#$ LUKE I AM YOUR FATHER &#*($&# ….
Staff now looks really confused at the other staff member that wrote down the message from the sign. Engrish man, what can you do! I’ve never understood one full sentence on one of these flights so… if we had actually diverted I’d probably only have known once we’ve landed.
Through the eye of the needle, once again. It seems to be my middle name.