The plane that Egypt Air uses to fly from JFK to Cairo must be the oldest aeroplane I have ever flown. As soon as I boarded the flight MS 986 (Boeing 777-200) I noticed the general drabness. The carpet underneath the seats was torn. The bathrooms had scratches in the toilet (I didn't wanna know what happened there!). The rows of seat in 2-4-2 style were covered in dull light blue or dark blue fabric in the front and yellow in the back. The seat cloth with a "bird in flight profiles" design seemed to not have been changed or washed since the airline started in 1932!
Thankfully the cabin crew was very professional and helpful. The food seemed pretty good for non-vegetarians (fish, beef, fried potatoes, yogurt, cheesecake) as apposed to the boiled rice & vegetables for vegetarians.
On top of that, the plane with 319 seats was slightly above 50% occupancy. So I was pretty excited to have the seat next to me empty. But that didn't last long. Few minutes after I had made myself quiet comfortable to my "scintillating" surroundings, three girls boarded and plunked right next to me. They were all dressed in tracksuits with "New Balance" logos and "EGY " blazing along the sides and back. My disappointment lasted only few minutes. They were the chirpiest, happiest and loudest people on the plane - they were members of the Egyptian Pentathlon team.
These three girls and four boys (sitting in front rows) were heading back home from a sports camp in Colorado Springs to train at high altitude. I sat next to Aya Medany who has already qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She recently won the World Cup final and has won a few of these Youth Championships before. She was accompanied by her teammates Omnia Fakhry and Yasmine Khaled. They were very generous with their time and wrote down for me all the restaurants in Cairo to try, Egyptian music that is a must-listen and sights to visit.
Mid-way through the flight one of the guy pentathlete exchanged seats and ended up next to me. He was Yaser Nafne. He started as a swimmer and then took up running, shooting, fencing, and riding to compete in Pentathlon. He mentioned Egyptian Federation has been pumping in lot of money in the sport and that has reflected in Egypt's recent achievements in the field. They have a Polish coach who I guess brings that famous East European ethos and regimented approach that gave us the world class gymnasts and swimmers during the 1970's and 1980's! All of these players ranged in age from 19-25 and were full of energy. The cabin crew provided them with extra meals, snack, etc (Egypt Air is another sponsor for the Pentathlon team!).
There was a gentleman sitting, in seat 32H, right ahead of Aya & then Yaser who was not shy to constantly express his annoyance with them whether they were swapping iPods, passing along Kashi Trail Mix bars, or answering questions for people like me and and many many other people (mostly Americans - baby boomers from Atlanta, Spokane, Los Angeles) or generally being 20 years olds. With about an hour left to land this man lost his patience, got into an argument with Omnia and yelled out in Arabic (Yaser translated for me), "I am a General in the Egyptian Army and I'll have you arrested until you all shut up".
The Pentathletes called for the cabin crew and the so-called General was escorted to the front of the plane and when he appeared 10 minutes later, he was very quiet and stayed that way until we landed 48 minutes later!!!
1 comment:
Ha ha. Nice. I love it when the top brass gets polished, as it were.
Your description of the plane sounds very sepia-tinged. I'd have enjoyed a transatlantic flight in such an old rust bucket. Like an old Humphrey Bogart movie. And your company sounds like they made a long trip that much shorter. If they win gold in Beijing, you can say, "Ah, I knew them when."
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