ET501

A Boeing 767 takes off from Dulles, heads north along the coast. Passes New York and then heads NNE bound, where tailwinds and a shorter route can be found.

But not today. The volcanic ash cloud that blankets most central and northern Europe also has made the northern Atlantic crossing routes unusable. After New York the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft took an easterly heading, passing well south of Iceland. the track is taking us just north of the Azores. At this latitude there is a prevailing easterly wind, currently 50 mph. Normally you’d see a groundspeed of almost 600 mph with the prevailing tailwinds further north. Today I am staring at the flight status screen showing 475 mph. In addition to the headwind the crew has throttled back to conserve fuel and on top of that a southerly route adds a considerable distance. All in all we are going to be about one hour and twenty minutes late into Rome.

The service is nice, just like last time. One of the flight attendants recognized me from my last trip, and she is making sure that everything is just right. I got introduced to some Ethiopian Executive here in business class, marketing I think it was.

My favourite though is the fat man who snores behind me in his seat. The snoring isn’t half bad. It almost has a rhythm to it. He does however kick with his right foot, over and over again. He is sleeping all sprawled out with his right arm protruding into the aisle. He must be dreaming of running, (by looking at him you wouldn’t think he has ran many steps for quite some time), because he keeps lifting his right leg as if he is taking a step and then banging his heel firmly into the floor. I bet his heel will be bruised when we arrive.

The stop in Rome was smooth, 55 minutes on the ground then off for Addis.

I was very tired and managed to get some sleep. The flight took us southeast, passing over Sicily then crossing the Mediterranean and then over the Sahara desert. Touchdown in Addis was about two hours late, and after 32 hours of travelling I stepped out of the 767 and into Bole International Airport.

Between having a visa obtained in the US and the first class line for immigrations, I made it through in less than 20 minutes. My bags were waiting for me and shortly thereafter i was on the Hilton shuttle to the hotel.