belated TR 1st posted in SQTalk:
Background
This is a write-up on my flight from JNB to GBE (Gaborone, Botswana). Having flown into JNB on SQ478, which i have slept thru with the 2.30am flight-time and hence have nothing to say, and sitting off 2 hrs of layover in the SAA Baobab lounge [see separate thread], i proceeded towards Gate A19 for my flight to GBE (Gaborone, Botswana).
The holding area for the remote standing gates resembles more like a bus terminal for passengers to be transported to the remote standings.
At 09:00, 20 min ahead of scheduled flight time, the 'gate' was opened:
Though most of the passengers boarded the bus, the driver and ticketing agent took quite a while before dispatching us to the plane, resulting in this scene:
In the meantime, i had the opportunity to witness a pallet of luggage [is there a proper term for this?] fallen off a tractor-wagon to block a service road. Took abt 5 mins before a forklift was summoned. I had fished out my camera by now, hoping to capture the drama, alas mine was no SLR and the scene was beyond my point and shoot. My fears that the forklift was the wrong machine was confirmed when the pallet tipped over to spill out the luggage therein, including one brown box with red FRAGILE labels all over it. At this juncture, the driver and agent decided we have waited enough and i was only able to capture this shot. Looks like some pple will be missing their luggage:
After a slow tour of JNB from the airside [the bus had to stop at every junction to check if any aircraft wld jump on us] we finally caught sight of the South African Express ramp.
JNB-GBE
Flight: SA1783
Aircraft: de Havilland DASH 8
Class: Economy
Seat: 5B
SA1783 was to be a DASH-8; cabin trolleys went to the trunk (aft of plane).
As we were boarding, this sight of engineers hurriedly fixing [whatever] to the nose-wheel was most re-assuring.
Customary leg-shot
View of towards cockpit from Seat 5B
The props started turning 5 mins before flight time, and at 09:20am sharp the plane rolled off from its standing. 5 mins later, it started down the runway.
Snack bag: 1 x short-cake, 1 x choc bar, 1 x cheezels. and juice and water
Glad they are still turning...
We landed at 09:55am, 15 mins ahead of schedule, at GBE – Sir Seretse Khama Airport. A new terminal building is underway, supposedly to be completed by June in time to ride on tourism fever arising from South Africa’s World Cup, but now probably only to be completed next year.
The new terminal is being built on the turf in front of the old single-story terminal building, a better perspective can be gleaned from this 2005 pic when i last visited.
A SAA A321 - a much smoother and faster ride, i'm sure - pulling away to return to JNB
The arrival hall, and the rest of the public area.