Some +ive press at last!? from the Manchester Evening News
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/sp...ory=77980.html
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on Saturday
SPIRITS were far from high when Manchester City's 17-strong official party climbed aboard their British Aerospace Jetstream 32 bound for what should have been a routine 45-minute flight home on Saturday.
The team, who flew separately, had failed to win for the 14th time in succession with the 4-2 defeat against Portsmouth in the Premiership, questions were being asked about manager Kevin Keegan's future and ex-Blue Eyal Berkovic had launched a verbal attack on his former employer.
Those issues, which were occupying most minds and which were the theme of most conversations, suddenly became insignificant 10 minutes into the flight from Southampton to Manchester Airport.
Take-off took place shortly after 7pm - right on time - and we were being served sandwiches and cold drinks when a thunderous explosion rocked the entire cabin of the 18-seater aircraft.
The noise, like a mortar exploding, shook the cabin violently and the plane plummeted what seemed like hundreds of feet. My stomach churned as if on a fun fair ride - except this was as far removed from fun as it is possible to get. Out of the window I could see a flame dancing in and out of the engine - I was thankful when it disappeared.
At first none of us uttered a sound. Even when several violent lurches to one side shook everyone in their seats and smoke and fumes leaked into the cabin, no one spoke out loud - in a whisper, City secretary Bernard Halford prayed to himself.
In the cockpit, the experienced pilot, Captain John Morris, could be heard issuing a mayday call while sequentially pressing buttons that all seemed to be flashing red.
Chairman, John Wardle, sat behind me opposite the wing with the failed engine - he had no colour in his face whatsoever - and Dennis Tueart, to his right, had broken into a cold sweat. There was not one person, I discovered later, who did not believe we weren't going to die. We all thought we were goners.
It seemed like Captain Morris was wrestling with the plane for a long period, though it was not a time to look at the watch and it was probably only five or 10 minutes before we were informed that we were heading for Farnborough Airport just 30 miles or so from where we had taken off.
REPORTER: Chris Bailey
It wasn't until we headed down through the clouds some quarter of an hour later - it seemed like an age - and saw streetlights, roads and finally the airport that some degree of relief returned and one or two murmured conversations began.
One of the honorary presidents, Ian Niven, calmed us by recounting how he had suffered a similar experience in the Second World War when he flew into Burma. That was much worse, he reasoned, for when he got down, there were Japanese snipers shooting at him!
Though not funny, it raised a smile and we had our very own reception committee when we landed.
Thankfully, it contained nothing more menacing than fire engines and ambulances which chased us down the runway. After a perfect landing, we all headed for the exit as quickly as possible.
By then it was around 8pm - an hour after we had boarded and 15 minutes after we were scheduled to be home. No one cared. We were safe, alive and Captain Morris received an ovation more enthusiastic than had greeted anything at Fratton Park. Footballers may be portrayed as heroes, but we had found a real one.
Quite what happened in such circumstances before the advent of the mobile I do not know. Presumably there would be a huge queue at the local phone box, but everyone in the party was soon wandering in this direction and that, contacting loved ones who had been oblivious of the drama.
Food and drink were provided at the Monkey Puzzle pub in Farnborough and Thomas Cook, the Blues' main sponsor and organisers of the flights, arranged for a coach - it was decided by a majority that the next plane journey could wait - to take us back to Manchester.
We arrived at the airport and our cars at 2.40am tired, relieved happy to be alive and with football very much in perspective.
Thank you, Captain Morris.