stressful day

thursday, yesterday, 03 august was just a normal day. started my day with a prayer and meditation of God's word. was pretty excited of what's in-store for me that day. i went to work feeling relaxed, although i was a bit late. everyone at the office was pretty much okey. not until 3:30 in the afternoon...

one of my colleague got a call from london, that flight BA031 bound for hongkong will be diverting here in manila due to the bad weather in hongkong. and that's it. the relaxed atmosphere in the office suddenly turned into a slight chaos. because it's an unexpected flight. and since british airways is a member of the oneworld alliance, we as staff from qantas are expected to help out in their flight. it was actually, okey, but what made things complicated is that it is simultaneous with our qantas flight. so we had to divide the staff into two. the other half would be assigned for qantas, the other for the british airways diverted flight.

as i looked outside the window, i saw a certain number of cathay pacific aircrafts which also diverted in manila due to the bad weather. there was also swiss air.

the airport was in chaos. both arrival and departure area looked like an evacuation center. passengers where actually brought to certain number of hotels, others were transferred to other airlines.

i was assigned at the office that time. and it was really a stressful night. phonelines were really busy. it's like a call center! the calls over the uhf radio was also non-stop.

there was actually a number of flights that wanted to divert in manila, but since the airport is really full, they were no longer accomodated and was just advised to divert at clark or at cebu international airport.

it was indeed a busy day for all of us. and i'm thankful that all of the diverted flights left already a while ago. again, we handled the british airways flight. and it turned out very well, thank God. we even got commendation from the crew, and from the passengers. when i heard what they said about us, i just felt like, all of the stress and cares from handling that flight just flew away.

i really thank God for what had happen. the diversion was really unexpected and unknown to us, especially to me. but it's a comfort because i know i was able to get through that experience because of God's grace. and i will always be thankful for that.

"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10