Pray before, during and after your flight. Flying in Somalia
 

Apols. if this is in the wrong place. It's an interesting read about flying in Somalia.

Somalia: Pray before, during and after your flight - Voices of Africa

brief sample:

"When the gates at the departure lounge opened, everyone rushed towards the plane. I, along with some other quick-footed passengers, chose to run. As with many domestic flights in Somalia, there are more passengers than available seats. If you don’t literally grab a seat on the plane, you’ll stand for the whole journey despite having paid for a seat. I was lucky to be one of the first to get on the plane. Seats filled up fast and 25 unlucky passengers were left standing in the aisle."

Reminds me of the Cairo flights we used to do. There were no assigned seats-although they drew the line at standing in the aisle! I was knocked down by an Egyptian carrying a boom box on his shoulder. As I came out of the galley he ran by me and caught me one on the side of the head with his radio. Boarding was chaotic and head counts a nightmare. We had to lock bathrooms and check under seats for crawling infants while handing out water and aspirin for all the headaches that the pax were expecting (According to the Egyptians we carried, headaches were caused by the pressurization, ergo the bigger your brain the worse your headache. They were also catching!) Unlike the experience you posted safety regs were strictly followed. But, I feel his pain. :sad:

This Old Russian planes have killed a lot of people in Africa and I don't know who will stop them in Somalia. I know Kenyan CAA will not accept any ANTONOV's and IL18's. I hope AMISON and Somali government with the help of UN will stop these madness.

So, business continues as usual. Seems like nothing much changes. Remember flying 737's in Nigeria in the '80s. Schedule? What's that? Flights often days, not hours late during harmattan.

Result? Massive overbooking. The fastest runners got the seats. Usually a scrum at the stairs and so have to order doors closed. Ground staff then had to drive the stairs away with pax clinging on to all sides.

Once, couldn't get back on board after transit walkround, till the melee subsided, assisted by security folks wielding batons.

Head count? What's that?! (toilets often occupied, and yes, once had 5 on jumpseat.....You think I'm joking? Good old days. It was certainly different).