PH Diary: When Air Peace’s Engine Refused to Start

 “Hello ladies and gentlemen, I have an update on our departure time,” the pilot said with a tone that seemed to suggest he had everything under control.

“We are unable to start our trip to Port Harcourt because one of the aircraft’s engine is not coming on."

Thinking of pink lingerie

Ah!

Mogbe!

Engine ke, I thought to myself as I could feel the tranquility envelop the Boeing 777 aircraft.

“We have contacted our engineers who will fix this issue and we should be ready to leave soon,” the pilot continued jolting me back to reality.

I quickly reached to put on my phone to update wifey who was eagerly anticipating my arrival.

“I just bought a new pink colour lingerie,” she had told me the previous day.

That Etche woman I got married to almost five years ago just has a way of bringing out the best in me.

The plan was to get home before 8:30am and collect one hand fes.

Again, the pilot’s voice brought me back to reality.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we sincerely apologise for the delay. The issue with the engines will take longer than we anticipated," he announced.

“As such, we regret to announce that everyone will need to disembark from the aircraft to allow our engineers fix the problem.

“Just in case I wasn’t clear earlier, let me clarify my earlier statement. The valves of this aircraft are like your car key-starter.

“You know when it is bad and your car is unable to start, that’s exactly the type of scenario we have here. It is not that the engines are faulty,” he tried to explain as the anxiety amongst us passengers was becoming more evident.

And disembark, we all did.

Then I messaged madam at home about the delays. At first I didn’t want to because I didn’t want to get her anxious. But I didn’t have a choice.

“What nonsense is this?” She asked.

“They will start making people scared,” she added.

Well, I wasn’t.

Meanwhile, my friend Soliu Adeyemo, who was going to Port Harcourt at the same hour with another airline reached out to say they’d departed.

It made the wait a little more annoying.

I had gotten to the airport at a few minutes past six that morning to see that Air Peace had already started boarding for the 7am flight.

To have this mess and unnecessary delay was not part of the script all.

That one hand way person wan manage wan get K-leg?

Anyway, twenty or so minutes later, another boarding was announced to our relief.

Waiting for second boarding call

The flight to Port Harcourt was largely a smooth ride. At exactly 9:25am, we finally touched down at the Omagwa International Airport.

Fortunately, my hommie, Sanipe, was already at the airport to pick, Soliu and Colin Udoh who was on the same flight with me.

I was already prepared to take a cab home as my brother-in-law who was scheduled to pick me from the airport was unavailable.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to again as we all hopped into the SUV Sanipe brought with our chief mourner, China Acheru seated in front.

China, Madam and Colin

Oh, I didn’t tell you: my friend China decided to kill his father last August. This weekend is the burial rites, that’s the major reason for this trip.

Sanipe decided midway to drop me first before taking the rest of the crew to China’s country home in Choba.

“Tell Sanipe that God will bless him 15 times,” wifey said when I told her on the phone that I was a few minutes from home.

Haha!

Wifey exchanged pleasantries with the entourage when we finally got home.

And just when the conversations seemed like they were getting too long, I told the guys I was going in.

“You wan go collect one hand abi,” China asked sarcastically.

“One hand for where? Since December, him go come back to give one hand?” madam quipped as everyone burst into laughter.

And that’s how we both walked into our building holding hands…

 

To be continued.