Originally Posted by
barry lloyd
Georgian Airways about 15 years ago. Flying Tblisi-Batumi. The alternatives at the time were at least eight hours on a train or seven hours in a minibus. The flight takes an hour. Checked-in, and we are bussed to a remote stand where a Yak-42 awaits. Pax board via the rear stairs, and everything seems OK until there's an argument at the back. Captain (I assume he was the captain - white shirt, black trousers, no epaulettes, but with a lit cigarette dangling from his mouth), wanders down the cabin, and the argument continues for several more minutes until I hear the doors close. All the seats are occupied. The captain returns to the flight deck, followed by one of the pax, while three others remain standing in the cabin. We take off with the standing pax holding onto the nearest flimsy seats. A gentle landing at Batumi ensures that the standing pax are in pole position to leave the aircraft. The return flight was presumably not overbooked: there were no standing pax.
There was the apocryphal story of the BOAC? BEA? pilot who used to wait until the passengers were all seated and would then walk to the cockpit from the back of the plane carrying a copy of "Teach Yourself Flying".