What a way to fly

During our time in Jakarta we used to return to Sydney for “home leave” each Christmas to spend time with family. Those Australian readers of my age would remember how back in the 70’s and 80’s, our trade unions were quite militant and the union representing the baggage handlers at the airports worked out, if they threatened to go on or actually went on strike over the Christmas holiday period, their employers would quickly cave in to their demands.

I think it must have been early in December 1979 that we heard that the baggage handlers were threatening to go on strike close to Christmas Day. Ginny and I decided that it was not worth Ginny taking the risk and so she took a flight in mid December with the idea I would follow on an overnight flight on Saturday 22 December.

Early in the week before my flight I was conducting a round of interviews to try and identify an enterprising young lawyer to join our law firm. Many of the interviews went ahead exactly as one would expect anywhere in the world, but there were some standout differences. I am not sure how many of you have heard of this but in India it was, at that time, quite common for applicants to fill their cv’s with all sorts of irrelevant information including, for example, that they had failed to get a particular degree at university. That very week I had my first and only experience of this in Indonesia. A young man handed his cv to me at the start of our meeting and there it was for all to see “BA (failed)”. In some cases I suspect this is included to show that the person had the requisite marks to get into university but, in sadder cases, it might mean they could not afford to continue their studies due to some family mishap. In the same week another young man came into the interview with an enormous suitcase. He sat down and handed over his cv and, as he took me through it, he would open his suitcase and hand over a framed degree or certificate as evidence that he really did have the qualification mentioned in his cv. However, he did not just have his law degree diploma in his suitcase but he had many framed certificates for even attending one day seminars. It was no wonder the suitcase was bulging.

So you can imagine what a “breath of fresh air” it was when a young woman candidate met with me and was extremely professional in her interaction. As I have mentioned in another of my blog posts, meetings usually start with a general chat. I learnt that her husband worked for Garuda and I told her that I was planning to take a Garuda flight to Sydney that Saturday but was concerned about a possible baggage handlers’ strike. We then spent time discussing her cv and what she was interested in doing with her career, with me explaining the role we had in mind. As she was leaving, she said to me “Look, if you are worried about your flight, please don’t hesitate to give me a call at home.”

As it got closer to the end of the week, the more concerned I became about the baggage handlers’ strike. I woke up on Saturday morning to hear they had indeed gone on strike. I thought “nothing ventured, nothing gained” and immediately gave the young lawyer a call. She said she would call me back in a couple of hours. Sure enough, just before noon she called me. She told me, “Please go out to the airport four hours before your scheduled flight. On arrival you should find out where the check in will be for GA897A.” This was actually not my flight number but I did not question her advice. I thanked her profusely and headed to the airport around 4pm as the scheduled flight was not until 8pm. In those days Halim airport did not have any electronic flight information and, usually an hour or so before the flight, a wooden board with the flight number on it would be slotted into the sign board above the relevant check in rows. I decided I need to find out where the check in would be so I could start queuing and approached the Garuda Information Counter. In my best Indonesian I asked them where the check in would be for GA897A. “Oh” they said, “you must be Bapak [Mr] Peter Church”. I was curious as I was traveling economy and, as this was so out of the ordinary, I asked “How did you know it was me?” The reply shocked me “Because Bapak Peter you are the only passenger on GA897A”. They asked if I was ready to board as we could leave immediately.

In those days there were no “air bridge” connections to planes and one had to walk out on the tarmac and climb up the stairs into the plane. As I was walking towards the plane I realised it was not one of Garuda’s smaller planes but a huge DC 10. When I got to the top of the stairs, there to greet me were, not just a couple of cabin crew, but all the cabin crew plus the pilot and co pilot. They clearly all thought it was going to be an unusual flight.

There were two standout memories from the flight. Some of you may remember in those days on overnight flights they used to feed you first and then put on the movie. The senior stewardess asked me if I would like to have my meal with the movie which never happened. Not only that, but all the cabin crew watched the movie and ate their meal with me. Rather than sit in first class we sat in a line in the first row of economy and watched the first class screen which was much bigger than the economy class one. The other memory which has stayed with me is post dinner going for a walk around an empty DC10. I imagined this must be what it would be like on Airforce One.

The flight went via Melbourne where I had to disembark to present my little yellow health book to the health officials for clearance and could then re board the aircraft before joining passengers. These little yellow health books still exist but one usually one has present them to show vaccinations from diseases like cholera and yellow fever before entering countries where those diseases are rife. Perhaps in a post Covid-19 world we will need to use these books more frequently?

There are two questions that I suspect some of you may have. Firstly, yes the young lawyer got the job and was a valuable member of the firm for many years. And secondly, why was I the only person on the flight? I found out that the husband of the young lawyer was a flight scheduler for Garuda. He took a chance that the strike would break while we were en route to Australia and that he would have a full flight back to Bali and Jakarta. And indeed that is exactly what happened. More than a decade later, when I would tell this story to Garuda executives, they would frequently respond “So you are the guy who got this flight?” Indeed I was -what a way to fly!