After I’d checked in yesterday to come back to Germany, I headed up to the food court, to find a cold drink. As I did so, I heard screaming, alarm bells, and noticed a general chaos descending… I’ve always felt that it’s not worth staying in a building if the alarm is going. I’d rather be inconvenienced on a regular basis, than dead just once.
So, along with everyone in sight, I evacuated the airport building, heading in a reasonably swift, orderly progression down towards a carpark.
What ensued was a couple hours of waiting around, mostly well-humoured travellers trying to figure what was going on, and some very harried customer service reps continually trying to herd people further and further.
News filtered in slowly, via radio, mobile phones, conversations with fellow-travellers, strategic eavesdropping and so on.
The airport staff were polite, as helpful as they could be, and did an excellent job overall. The travellers, for their bit, were patient, understanding, and willing to have a laugh at the situation. The rain made it a little less pleasant, although after an hour or so, people were allowed in to the multi-storey carpark to seek shelter – I didn’t take this option, as there were several people smoking in there, and I preferred the fresh air outside.
Communication was an issue – while regular announcements were made that we were safe, and would be given updates as available, no information was provided on whether flights would resume later, or be cancelled. A blanket “we aim to get as many flights as possible back on track, once we’re allowed in” would have allayed many fears and much of the discontent – and seemed to be true. Only a few flights – all Ryanair, as far as I could tell – were cancelled.
Of course, after all that drama, once we finally got on the plane, the flight went relatively smoothly – until I disembarked, went through passport control, and realised I’d lost my wallet, and that it must be on the plane. Fortunately, by the time I’d collected my suitcase and gotten over to the Aer Lingus desk to ask, they’d already received a call to say a wallet had been found on the plane, so I just had to hang around a little bit longer, for the rep to bring it over.
Boy, was I glad to get back to my own little apartment!