номер 4, страница 82 - гдз по английскому языку 5-11 класс учебник Latham-Koenig, Oxenden

8.10.

So I was living in Spain at the time and I was traveling back from Spain to the UK, with my wife and two young children. It was two days before Christmas, and we were traveling back to London to visit my family there. It was an evening flight from Valencia to London Gatwick.

Come on, kids, are you nearly ready? We're leaving for the airport in fifteen minutes.

Coming, daddy, daddy!

What time do we need to check in?

Well, the flight leaves at ten fifteen. Don't worry, we've got plenty of time.

Flight Iberia, six, eight, four, five. Please passengers proceed to gate number, A, six.

The weather in Spain was really good. But just before we were going to take off, I was just reading my messages at the last minute and I saw there was a message from my brother, Russ.

Oh, look. There's a message from Russ. Oh, he's asking whether the flight's been canceled. Apparently there's a really bad storm in London, with gale force winds.

Oh, really? That doesn't sound good.

I know. Anyway, we're about to take off. I'll let him know we're already on the plane.

So we took off, but obviously we were a bit worried about what the weather was going to be like when we got there.

It was a two-hour flight and everything was fine until we were approaching Gatwick when the pilot made an announcement.

Eight point eleven.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We're about twenty minutes from Gatwick, but unfortunately, we can't land yet because we've been told that there's really windy weather there. So, we're going to circle for a while and assess the situation. Please make sure that your seatbelts are fastened, as it may be a bit bumpy.

So the plane started circling.

And then we started getting the worst turbulence I've ever, ever experienced.

The plane just seemed to be going up in the air, then dropping down, then rising up again, then dropping.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. We're going to attempt a landing now.

We could see now that the wind was incredibly strong. We could see the wings of the plane moving up and down out of the window. I'm sure everyone on the plane was thinking the same thing.

He's never going to be able to land the plane. We're going to crash.

Attention passengers, please be seated and make sure your seatbelts are fastened. The cabin lights will remain dimmed for landing.

Then just at the very last moment, the pilot obviously realized that it was impossible to land and he changed his mind.

And the plane suddenly rose back up into the air.

It was an absolutely terrifying moment.

The plane just kept climbing and climbing, going further and further away from the airport.

Ladies and gentlemen, well, I'm very sorry, but it was too dangerous to land. It was too windy and, I'm afraid, we can't land at Gatwick now because the airport's been closed. Um, in fact, I have to tell you that we can't land anywhere in the UK because all the airports are closed. I mean, for us here for the past couple of years, it's just...

Eight point twelve.

Speaker 1: So, where are we going to land if the airports are closed?

Speaker 2: I've no idea. Maybe Paris.

Speaker 1: Paris? What if we don't have enough fuel to get there?

Then the pilot made another announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to try to land at Amsterdam, because the weather conditions there are a little better. So, we're heading towards the Netherlands now. We're due to land at Schiphol in approximately one hour. Oh.

After that, we had about an hour's journey to Holland. That was okay, fairly normal. And then as we got closer to Amsterdam, the pilot came back on again. Good evening, everyone. We'll be landing shortly at Schiphol Airport. It's going to be a bit windy here too, but not as bad as at Gatwick, you'll be happy to hear.

And it was quite a good landing. A little bit bumpy, but everyone was very, very relieved to get down on the ground. Oh.

And we all started getting up. To be honest, we couldn't wait to get off, to get our feet back on firm ground again.

And we got up and we started to take our things from the overhead locker. But then there was another announcement. Your attention, everyone. We aren't going to disembark here in Amsterdam. We're going to refuel and then we'll be flying back to the UK, because we've been told that in a couple of hours the weather may be a bit better at Gatwick. However, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to get off, you can get off, but unfortunately there won't be a hotel for you to stay at tonight, because this plane's travelling back to Gatwick. Oh.

Eight point thirteen.

So basically, then everyone had a dilemma, to stay on the plane or to get off and spend the rest of the night in Amsterdam.

What do you want to do?

Oh. Get off here, or try getting back to London tonight?

To be honest, I think we should get off.

Yes, absolutely. Let's get off now. I don't want to be on this plane a minute longer.

Come on, kids, get your things.

More or less, everyone with children got off the plane. But a lot of the passengers stayed on board. I suppose for some people, the idea of being stuck in Amsterdam on Christmas Eve was even worse than flying back to Gatwick and trying to land again.

But personally, we were really happy to get off that plane. We spent the night in Amsterdam Airport.

Then in the morning, we got a train from Amsterdam to Belgium. In Brussels, we picked up the Eurostar, and that took us through France, under the Channel and safely back to London.

So after traveling all day, we finally got to my parents' house at around seven o'clock in the evening on Christmas Eve. Just in time for the children to hang up their stockings.

That flight was definitely the most frightening experience I've ever had.