Originally Posted by
Lance Shippey
Jan 1983, I flew LGW/MOS and LED/LGW. with a BY B737 G-AVR? as part of a Thomson tour to MOS/Murmansk/LED, including Aeroflot flts MOS/MMK MMK/LED ......
I had a an American friend pick me up from LGW, and was told by him."The flight did not exist on the LGW arrival board.
Had it not just been taken off the board 'cause it had already arrived?
I'm never quite sure how to take some of the stories that circulated about Eastern Bloc flights. When Balkan started flights from Newcastle to Bulgaria in the 80's, one of the gems that went around was that when you got off your Balkan Tu154 at Varna or Bourgas there was a soldier at the bottom of the stairs aiming a gun at all the passengers as they emerged from the aircraft door. Not sure why a country desperate for foreign currency would welcome tourists in such a way, or why Gatwick Airport would deny the existence of a flight from Leningrad. (The Balkan and TAROM flights to Newcastle definitely appeared on the arrivals board - I remember my dad checking in our CAM to see what the prefix 'LZ' was!)
Apols for thread drift