The Gatwick drone caused a lot of frustration, disappointment and festive fury this Christmas period. When we were told half an hour before landing in Gatwick that the drone had reappeared and we were to be redirected to Luton, I too couldn’t help feel somewhat irked by the whole thing. After being out of the country and away from my fiancé, friends and family for 3 months; the EasyJet flight from Munich on the 21st December was the beginning of my holiday and this was not a good start.
After sitting on the tarmac at the wrong airport for a good half an hour we were told that because too many planes had also been redirected to Luton there was not enough ground team to safely get us off the plane any time soon.
Christmas cheer was rapidly diminishing.
I, then recalled one of my favourite Christmas films: ‘Elf’.
“The only way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear”
So that’s what I did.
I, at least, distracted the frustrated passengers for a little while and brought a smile to those also desperate to make the best out of a bad situation.
The lovely cabin crew allowed me to squeak and squawk my Christmas cheer for 3 songs and even let me use the tannoy.
Shortly after the merriment subsided the news came that it would take the ground crew 5 hours to get us off the plane as well as our luggage and so, because the drone had disappeared again, we would take off again and head back to Gatwick. A flight that should take 1.5 hours took 6.
There’s one of two ways to deal with situations like this: wait anxiously for the storm to pass or learn to dance in the rain.