AFGHANISTAN ADVENTURE

11/9/07, AGHANISTAN ADVENTURE FROM THE FEMALE SIDE: Last Sunday Safi Airways had its inaugural flight to Afghanistan. This was basically supposed to be a fam flight and an opportunity for the crew members to update their visas. However, it turned into quite an extravaganza in Kabul. The operations officer’s wife and I were invited to tag along, as well as about 25 members of the very prolific Safi family. From the pilot side, I will let Bob fill in all the trials and tribulations of making this flight happen, which were numerous.

We started the day by taking a one-and-a-half-hour bus trip across the desert to Fujairah, on the other side of the UAE, where the plane had been parked for the last month. Some of the scenery could have been from the American West. Overall it was pretty desolate until we got close to Fujairah.

Bob was captain for the trip up, which always makes me feel better. He hasn’t lost the magic touch. The entire cabin applauded both when we got in the air and when we safely landed in Kabul.

We flew a route over Iran and Afghanistan. From what I could see from the air, I don’t know why anyone would want to live anywhere we flew over. I’ve never seen such desolate, barren countryside.

Kabul was quite an experience. When we landed and taxied in, there was a huge group there to meet the plane; TV cameras, flags, Imam, and everything. The elder Safi was the first one to greet and congratulate the crew. By the time we left the airport for the hotel, it was too dark to see a lot, but we saw more on the way back to the airport the next day. I don’t think you can get much more third world than Kabul. It’s still a military zone, and we could not leave the hotel. You see tanks, bikes, and all sorts of transportation, mules in the streets; lots of beggars, children and adults.

The hotel is the only “5 star” in Kabul and has a shopping center as part of the structure. That’s a bit of a stretch, but the rooms were fine. Mr. Safi held a big dinner for the crew and VIPs, and then some of the many “Safi kids” invited the pilots to go up on the rooftop to smoke from the sort of hubblee-bubblee pipes. I call it a “peace pipe.” These do not have drugs in them, and I honestly don’t know if they can be used as vehicles for some sort of drugs or not. They’re really neat looking, though.

The next day, upon an adventuresome and, I’m glad to say, safe ride to the airport, there was another big ceremony. They had a very large, colorful tent set up with about 500 chairs. This time the UN, some various country delegates, press, Afghan government officials, lots of Safi family, and crew were present. Since the crew had to be there early to do preflight, I ended up talking to a very nice Australian, an Afghan military officer, and a couple of Afghan Safi execs under a tree at the airport, watching the caterers set up for the reception under the tent while numerous Afghan and UN military officials were “hanging out.“ I never thought I’d be doing anything like that. Hamad Karzi was supposed to be there but was apparently attending that meeting in the north that was bombed. Unfortunately our Afghan is a little weak, so we couldn’t understand a thing anyone said during the ceremony.

The flight back was filled with numerous procedural quirks, as is not surprising in a third-world war zone. Bob had designated someone else to be captain, but it’s a good thing he was in the cockpit monitoring because there were apparently a lot of deviations to the original flight plan.
I will say there was one time I did not feel real safe. Generally when people are ready to transfer from the hotel, they don’t just hang out on the streets. They get in the car/van and go quickly. For some reason, there was a problem, and we ended up being stuck in the van in front of the hotel for about 20 minutes. We noticed a man just sitting in a van across the street watching most of the time we were there, and it made me very uncomfortable. We were very glad to get moving finally.

All in all, it was just a very moving and memorable experience, and I’m very glad I went. I’m also glad I don’t have to stay there. If I’m lucky I will be able to include one or two pictures here. We’ll see what happens.

As a side note, we have had a lot of Internet connection problems lately, so I apologize for the lack of communication.

Alice