Crazy-town Karachi

International Flight Attendant. Before starting this job I had some romanticised ideas of this job title and knew that along with the more glamorous aspects there had to be some less than fabulous sides to it as well. Yesterday was one of those not so glossy days, where the entire crew were pushed to their limits - both physically and metaphorically.

It was meant to be a simple turnaround. Leave Dubai in the afternoon, drop passengers off in Karachi, pick new ones up, land in Dubai, clock off at 11pm. Well things appeared to be flowing perfectly until we had touched down in Karachi and were informed by our captain that the previous aircraft needed some engineering attention before taking off again so we were going to give the crew ahead of us our plane and we would wait for the other aircraft to be fixed and then take it back to Dubai. At this stage the wait was calculated at being around the 4 hour mark (it was 8pm at this point). A few groans and sighs were expended and we were then lead by ground staff through Pakistan's humble airport to the crew lounge which consisted of a sub-arctic air conditioned room, no windows and four lounges for 15 crew. Shoes were kicked off, hair was uncoiled and some made a beeline to the cold spring roll and hot beverage buffet. To pass the time many of the girls perused the airport's retail outlets, stocking up on high quality pashminas at bargain prices. For reference, leather jackets are exceptionally cheap in this neck of the woods as well (roughly $A80) however on this occasion none of us were in the market for such goods, circa 1980.

The clock kept ticking, and the early morning hours were beginning to turn us slowly into sleep deprived bed-hungry beasts, not too dissimilar to Michael J Fox's transformation in Teen Wolf. It was fast becoming clear that the four hour wait was a modest estimate and at 3am we were making the best use of our delusional state of mind and entertaining grand illusions of an escape back to Dubai by camel-back. At 5am the ground staff announced that the aircraft was good to go, and we would be taking the empty aircraft back to Dubai with no passengers. Hurrah! We bounded up the stairs to our mother-ship and we each grabbed a seat in the front cabin and the sound of electronic footrests raising up infiltrated the tropical air. Before reaching the fully inclined position there were shrieks of horror and a chorus of arm smacking - the aircraft was infested with mosquitoes! The main door had been left open the entire 9 hours on ground for the engineers, and the little blood sucking insects had clearly taken a liking to the indulgence of 'flying' in one of our premium cabins.

Despite the humid conditions we all grabbed blankets and covered up from neck to foot in an attempt to ward off the critters. I wasn't content with leaving my head exposed to Malaria so I tore away the velcro attached chiffon scarf from my work hat and tucked it into my blanket, draping it over my head. Yes, some may have laughed but I certainly wasn't going to take any chances!