Bukhansan National Park, South Korea
Why Norway?
From South Korea, I was flying to Norway. In case my next destination sounds illogical, I was going there to see my aunt who lives in Trondheim. If it had not been my aunt I’d have flown home in the opposite direction, over the Pacific to Colorado. She asked me to come because of a family matter. I had no idea what was on my aunt’s mind. She wouldn’t tell me what it was about.
If anyone was intrigued by such an invitation to visit it had not been me. Knowing my aunt’s peculiar character, my first impulse was not to go. A trip to Northern Europe did not fit my plans and I did not even know the reason for being summoned like this. Only, my aunt did not take ‘no’ for an answer. She needed my help; I had to come.
I asked how urgent it was. Not urgent at all; in fact, she was going to Croatia for a vacation herself. Any time before or after her trip would do. A 3 to 4-day stay in Trondheim would be sufficient to resolve her issue.
The vacation in Croatia meant that my aunt was not in an immediate grave danger. Still, the bottom line was I had no choice but to agree to pay her a visit across half of the world. She accepted it in a matter-of-course way as if I had been taking the bus from a nearby town.
With that little information, I bought a one-way ticket from Seoul to Trondheim via Moscow and Stockholm. My aunt and I did not see each other for years. I was worried how we would get along and what kind of help was required from me. In case my aunt had some really impossible ideas as she might have, my backup plan was to move to a hotel.
From Seoul to Moscow
A non-stop Aeroflot flight from Seoul to Sheremetyevo, Moscow was 10 hours. The Boeing 777 was packed, not a single seat was vacant and all passengers were Koreans. The only Europeans on the plane were the Russian crew and me. Sitting in the middle seat, squeezed between a young woman and a middle-aged man, I marveled at the number of tourists traveling from Asia to Russia.
The woman on my right searched her seat pocket for a headset and did not find any. She pressed the call button. A flight attendant with the name tag Svetlana appeared in front of her. My neighbor, in perfect English, asked for a headset. Svetlana did not understand. The passenger gestured to explain what she needed pointing to her ears. Svetlana looked dumbstruck for a while, and then she got it. She struggled for words until she found one and said ‘Later!’ sounding like a strict school teacher.
Speaking fluent English is a mandatory requirement for the crews on international flights. All other crew members easily communicated with passengers. Only Svetlana could not and I wondered how she passed the language test to get that job.
When it was dinner time, my other neighbor, the man on the left asked for chicken. Svetlana was not sure what he wanted and showed him a picture with a cow, a chicken, pasta, and a fish, so he could point at the right meal.
That was the only notable thing that happened during the flight. Everything else went smoothly. Despite the flight length and uncomfortable seat in the middle, I was not tired when I got off the plane in Moscow.
All my three legs were separate tickets. I did not have a boarding pass for my next flight and the layout time was 1 hour 40 minutes. I cursed myself for buying the tickets with a tight connection. Amazingly, going through security was a breeze. I was at the departure gate well before the boarding began.
The airport always known to me as Sheremetyevo was recently renamed to Alexander Pushkin airport. In May 2019, by Putin’s decree, 44 airports got new names; or rather the names of prominent Russians were added to the old airport names. So this airport in Moscow is now called “Sheremetyevo Alexander S. Pushkin International Airport”. The idea behind this project was to promote national unity and identity.
From Moscow to Trondheim
The flight from Moscow to Stockholm was also operated by Aeroflot. The aircraft design looked unfamiliar to me. I pulled the passenger information card out the seat pocket. The plane was a Sukhoi Superjet 100, the Russian-built aircraft.
Six months ago, in May 2019, a Sukhoi Superjet 100 left Moscow for Murmansk. It was struck by a lightening that disabled its autopilot system. The plane returned to Moscow, made a hard landing with full fuel tanks and burst into flames. Out of 73 people on board, 41 died.
This was the second tragic incident since that the plane started flying in 2008. In 2012, an SS 100 on a demonstration flight in Indonesia crashed into a mountain, killing all 45 people on board.
Following the May crash, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency ordered an inspection of every Sukhoi Superjet 100 in operation. The planes were declared safe to fly. However, airlines cancelled their orders for the SS 100. Mexican LCC Interjet said they wanted to sell their fleet of 20 Superjets. Even Aeroflot scaled back the number of flights with the SS 100.
Perhaps, that was the reason why the plane had only a few passengers on board. We did not experience any issues and landed in Stockholm on time.
My last flight was on a small regional airplane that looked inside more like a bus. That plane, too, safely delivered everyone to Trondheim. I hopped on the bus from the airport to the city center and walked to my aunt’s home.
It was close to midnight when I rang her doorbell. After a quick shower, I went straight to bed and soundly slept until morning in Norway, with no jet lag whatsoever.