Athens, Sunday, 1995-07-30 10:30 local (Z+3)
This “trip from hell” has included the fact that there continues to be little time to communicate, so another short note before checking my e-mail.
I'll leave in about half an hour to begin the return to New York. There'll be a fuel stop at Paris. If all goes as planned I'll hit JFK about 20:00 tonight New York time. I'm hoping I'll get to go home, although there'll be no way to get out of New York this evening. I'll have to sleep there tonight and catch one of the early flights out in the morning. My schedule calls for me to get 4 days off. By the time I reach there, I'll have flown about 113 hours in July, so that means they can't use me domestically and could get only 7 hours out of me internationally. Unfortunately that's about the time required for a San Juan turn.
Forgot (and didn't have time) to mention in the last message that that last Paris overnight included almost getting hit by a car. The flight engineer I was with wasn't so lucky. We were crossing a street, in the crosswalk with a green light, when a guy ran a red light. I saw him coming and retreated. The flight engineer was ahead of me and elected to try for the other side. Big mistake. The car got him, put him up on the hood, onto the windshield (thoroughly caved it in) and then tossed him aside. I was amazed he wasn't killed when I reached him. He was, in fact, still consciousness. Lots of confusion. The police and emergency services people couldn't speak English. Finally an English speaking Frenchman from the crowd that gathered volunteered his services as a translator. Anyway, outside of a broken foot, a concussion, and lots of small cuts and numerous, massive bruises, the engineer is okay. They checked him out at the hospital, and he deadheaded back with us the next day. An engineer had to fly all night from New York to reach us in time for the return trip.
One of the guys in my class, another first officer, quit a couple of days ago. He was the youngest in the class and has two young boys. Tower's schedule was basically ruining his home life. I've always thought that anyone who has children at home has to realize that if they are a pilot, especially an international pilot, they are sacrificing their relationship with their children. Apparently his wife gave him an ultimatum, Tower or us. I think he made the right choice.
Okay, have to run...Terry