It is Monday 19th December. The taxi arrived on time, and got me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. The queue for the check-in desk was still quite small, and I got through that and security in short length of time. I had arranged to meet my niece for breakfast, who was also flying to Dubai the same day, but on a different flight. We met up and had breakfast together and chatted about various things.
My flight was due to arrive at Dubai first because it was a direct flight. My niece was changing flights at Zurich and was due to land at Dubai about 2 hours after me. My brother was meeting us both. After breakfast we said farewell and went to get our respective flights. We would meet up in Dubai that evening, or so we thought.
I boarded the plane and got comfy in my seat. I started to watch a movie “Brian and Charles” (top movie), I had got quite a way into the film when I looked at my watch, we were late taking off. The next thing a passenger announcement interrupted the the movie. “Due to a technical problem can everyone on the upper deck please leave the aircraft”. I didn’t know I was on the upper deck until that point. We all left the aircraft and went back to wait in the passenger lounge. Eventually they announced that the flight was cancelled and they would arrange another flight the following morning.
One of the escape chutes had opened during the final checks. It is a big job to put one of these back, hence the cancellation.
I was flying with Emirates, and they put everyone up in hotels around Manchester. I spent an extra night in Manchester, in the Hilton hotel in Ancoats. The bed was an improvement on what I had been sleeping upon recently.
So my niece beat me to Dubai in the end. I got there about 24 hours later after a comfortable sleep.