From shared lunches to more restrictions
As the years passed and we approached the tenth anniversary of being on the job, contact with other colleagues of my age group tapered off. Some of them went to other shifts or even other control units and this did not help of course. But on the few occasions we met, talk was no longer about girls or the pub but our respective aptitude in using Pampers properly. In other words, each of us was busy building a family and this left little time for anything else. Folks in the same shift tended to stick together though and common programs only strengthened this unity. For example (and this was back in the times before the political changes took place) we were members of a so called “brigade”. Sometimes we attended the May Day parade together but the common outings and excursions were the most memorable. One of the most successful trips was to Ocseny. Eight of us crammed into two small Polski Fiat’s, no mean feat! An old friend, VK welcomed us at the Ocseny airport where after we took turns to fly in a small plane above the Gemenc forest. After
each of us consuming a huge portion of “marhaporkolt” (beef prepared in a not quite goulash mode) and some excellent wine from the Szekszard region, it was even more difficult to get into the little cars… but we made it home safely.
On another occasion we were helping at the building site of one of our colleagues. Back then people built their own houses with help from friends. We got immersed in shifting bricks so much that we clean forgot that the group, in its totality, was due for night shift. In the end we reported two hours late and inserted the plugs of our headsets to the loud and forceful cursing of the day crew finally released to go home.
In one of the other groups the star activity was the common Approach-Tower bowling party. Alongside bowling, some beer was also consumed and of course the star dinner offered by whoever was hosting the party. This was the last, fragile thread between the approach control unit and the tower but even this was severed when I changed groups once again. As it turned out, I was the go-between who kept the contact alive and attended to the organization, the others just came along for the ride. When I left, the activity was simply not pursued any more.
In some shifts it became the custom to have lunch together during week-end duty. You must know that in Hungary, lunch is an elaborate affair, comparable to dinner in other cultures. The appointed cooks collected the money from the colleagues on duty, bought the ingredients and prepared the meal in the tiny kitchen of the tower. We then consumed the food in the course of the next two shifts. Sadly, even this came to a premature end due to the incredible pettiness of some. Who will wash up? He ate one extra plateful yet paid the same as the others…
Of course life was bubbling also at other parts of the airport. Traffic at Ferihegy was slowly but surely growing and as a result of the change in political system, the number of diplomatic flights landing at Budapest also showed a marked increase. They had some really famous people on board, like Prince Charles and Princess Diana (still as a couple), the elder Bush, Jelcin, and later Bill Clinton… I could go on with the list endlessly. Pope John Paul II came by twice, in ’91 and ’96. His second visit will be remembered by all… after he celebrated mass somewhere in the country, he flew back in a helicopter in a huge thunderstorm. To be honest, we too were praying that they get home in one piece. They did but some time later R506 was less lucky.
The MD500 took off from Siofok-Kiliti airport in clear weather but by the time they arrived at Ferihegy in the evening, thick fog had descended on the airport, making their approach difficult. Investigation later revealed that had they relied on their instruments, they would have landed safely. As it was however, they mistook the lights of the prison complex situated under the approach path to runway 13R for the runway lights… I shudder to this day when I think of how the blip disappeared from the tower radar display and the radio speaker remained silent in spite of repeated calls from the tower controller.
Soon after the alarm was raised we got the news that a helicopter had crashed not far from the threshold of runway 13R. Of course we knew by then which helicopter it was. A tragic detail is that the press got to the accident site sooner than did the rescue units. This was of course a major scoop for the press and they had a bloody orgy reporting all the gory details, complete with photos, in the news that night and in the papers the next day. I came to hate the media people as a result of their totally insensitive treatment of the accident.
Another media story concerns one of the commercial TV channels which sent a news crew to ask us what kind of problems we were experiencing as the result of the Malev pilots’ work-to-rule action. The feature they were representing was called “Facts” and I decided to give them the facts… So I told them that there was no problem at all, in fact we were working together very well, they adhered to all the rules and did not complain about anything and the flow of traffic was hardly affected at all. Of course it was a waste of time to watch the evening edition of “Facts”, not a single word said in the tower was in the program. They only showed taxiing aircraft and the text was the misleading nonsense of the activists, geared to the viewers who could not tell an aircraft from a rat’s ass anyway… They took the story at face value and I was left to explain to my friends why I was not on TV after all.
Of course this episode convinced me that the whole world of commercial television is a farce and I have not looked at another edition of “Facts” since.
On one occasion we were paid a visit by the Parliament’s environmental protection committee. I was given the honor of escorting the gentlemen of the committee to the tower cab. So I had an opportunity to talk to some of them. The funniest question (whispered as an aside) was: are we planning to strike again? This was about two years after the famous strike I told you about some time ago in an earlier article. What could I answer? Oh no, there is no reason for another strike, we are perfectly happy and satisfied with everything. I am not sure the guy asking the question understood the message… but we all smiled broadly.
Was there any consequence of their visit? Oh for sure! New noise restrictions aplenty, slowly aircraft were almost required to climb straight up… We do recall their visit often and regret to this day that our management was not able to explain to politicians how aircraft work. Instead they introduced more restrictions tying our hands and feet…