Times have not exactly been "smooth as silk" for the national airline recently. The tale of the two pilots who insisted flying first class from Zurich to Bangkok, delaying the flight for more than two hours, prompted considerable debate. The incident brought to mind a chance meeting a long time ago with someone who had a very different attitude.
Back in my student days in 1965, I was on the A4 Road near Heathrow airport waiting for a Thames Valley bus to take me to Reading. It was a filthy wet night and standing alone at the bus stop with all the vehicles thundering past was a miserable experience.
I was quite happy when another fellow showed up at the stop and we began chatting. On the bus I asked what he did for a living. To my amazement, he said he was a pilot for BOAC (forerunner of British Airways) and had just flown in from the Caribbean that evening. I expressed surprise that someone with such a seemingly glamorous job, who had begun his day in Montego Bay, would end it sitting on a bus stuck at the Slough traffic lights.
