The 26th Episode : Jumbo jet in a shake

[July, 1988　from Singapore to Hong Kong]

     All the schedule in Singapore was finished and the day had come to leave for Hong Kong.  I was to take a morning flight to visit a company in Hong Kong in the evening.  The president of the Hong Kong company was in Japan during my visit of Singapore and was to return to Hong Kong for our meeting.

     The flight left Singapore Changi Airport in the rain as scheduled flies towards Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport.  But it was unsayable to be comfortable flight.  Seatbelt and No Smoking signs were on all the time.  Aircrafts still had smoking seats those days.  I fastened the seatbelt all the time in spite of on or off of the signs, but we had shake constantly and eerily.

     Lunch was served but it was hard to eat.  We had occasional sharp rises and falls, and left to right rocking, and even when flying straight we had rattle shaking.  Drink was sometimes spilled and heard somebody’s scream.  The air currents were quite turbulent.  I saw the tip of the main wing was waving like birds' flapping (a little exaggerating!?) out of the window.  It was the biggest aircraft B-747, Jumbo Jet!

     What caused such a big shake? Because a typhoon approached from the southeast of Southeast Asia and passed to north just before the flight.  We were flying like chasing it.

     I would be taking flights many many times after this, but have never experienced bigger shake than this one.