It was a warm, humid evening and the spectacular tropical sunset usually seen from this part of South America was missing. In it’s place a dark and menacing low overcast rolled in from the sea to create a sudden, and very dark, night.
The airline crew bus crawled along the coastal road towards Caracas International airport at Maquetia, carrying a 747 Classic crew returning to London after an unusually long layover at the Macuto Sheraton in Venezuela.
It was 1990 and I was the Flight Engineer on that crew, and as the bus drove on through the night I looked unseeing at the windows as I tried to reach a rational decision about an unexpected problem.
It had been a great trip, with five days off, and I had spent the time with a Spanish friend exploring the rain forest in the Amazonas area, sleeping in hammocks slung between trees, and visiting a Piaroha Indian encampment.
This was not usual behaviour for an airline crew, most people being content to lie beside the hotel pool and soak up the sun. However I had become more than enthusiastic about South America, and being a senior crewmember was able to choose the best trips using the airlines bidding system. So three weeks ago I had visited the Orinoco by riverboat, and two weeks before that, the Andes Mountains near Merida.
Maybe it was the mosquitoes; perhaps it was the food, certainly not the wine! But I felt very peculiar, not ill but “spaced out” with a touch of tummy trouble and a need to find a toilet fairly soon.
Had this condition shown itself back in the hotel a few hours ago, then I would certainly have gone sick, giving the airline time to find a replacement crewmember. But to do so now with only just over an hour to departure would cause massive problems and expense for my company. Also I was by far the oldest, and possibly the most experienced of the flight deck crew. (In the days of integrated flight crew, and cockpit resource management, flight engineers had become more like the conductors of an orchestra, most being more than capable of landing a 747 in the event of a pilot incapacitation)
So I decided to press on, and just to confirm my decision ran through the memory items of the emergency check lists with no apparent trouble. I was further comforted by the thought that my seat on the flight deck was nearest to the crew toilet, which I figured I might need frequently during the trip home!
At the airport briefing office we had a full pax load, and departure delays due arrivals holding for the weather. We started the engines on time however, and pushed back for the short taxi to the runway. ATC was very busy with mostly Spanish transmissions, but we were cleared in English to enter the active and hold. Still feeling “odd” I completed the checklist to “below the line”. We entered the active runway and began a right turn to line up, and from habit I looked out of the left side window to check the approach was clear. All in that same moment, a pair of landing lights appeared out of the overcast, frighteningly close. There was a burst of Spanish expletives on the radio, and ATC called “Speedbird expedite take-off…Speedbird expedite take-off”! The Captain called for full power…and I spooled up the engines as rapidly as possible looking forward at the EPR gauges to set the power that I had previously calculated for that day. But I COULD NOT READ THE GAUGES! they were a blur with the pointers and digitals unreadable to me. [Pratt & Whitney –7 engines are flat rated- that means there are no limiters, and only the pilot or Flt.Eng control overtemp, over pressure, overspeed, or total self destruction!]
But we had to go - 300 tons of Spanish airliner was hurtling towards our tail, and another Tenerife collision was imminent. F**!! we must go go! So I set the thrust levers by feel, and by the sound of the engines – and we expedited – by God how we expedited!
I spent the most of the trip home in the crew toilet, (thanks Capt. & F/O for covering for me) but reviving enough for the landing at Heathrow.
At home next day my Doc took samples and sent them off to the Inst. of Tropical Medicine for analysis.
Aweek later my Boss called me to HQ for interview.
Talk about stick & carrot! The recorded engine parameters were on the table, two engines had overtemped, and one had overpressured. “I had endangered an aircraft, this was a resigning matter” “The fact that no damage had occurred to any engine was irrelevant” - This was the big stick.
But then came the carrot – If I took early retirement the company would give me a generous severance payment. I enquired “How much”? and my Boss handed me a folded paper to read. – Seemed like it was time to go, and so ended 25 years of airline back seat driving. Then I started to fly little planes, but that’s another story.
The medics later confirmed that I had a nasty tropical bug which while causing vomiting and diarrhoea also produces mild hallucinations and forgetfulness. But by that time I had found in my flight bag, the eyeglasses that I always wore for night take-offs & landings - except my last flight in BA!
My point in giving out this story? Well things happen in aviation which defy reason, and you live to tell the tale. So many times it's happened to me, and I just wonder sometimes if my guardian angel is getting near retirement age herself?
Thanks everyone for your wonderful posts on this thread.
MG