Storming into the new year
THEY call extreme weather an “act of God”, so it seemed odd that dozens of commuters missed out on attending synagogue and eating a festive meal due to Melbourne’s terrible conditions.
THEY call extreme weather an “act of God”, so it seemed odd that dozens of commuters missed out on attending synagogue and eating a festive meal due to Melbourne’s terrible conditions.
Last Wednesday, medical student Nomi Blum, 25, left Sydney on a 1.30pm flight bound for Melbourne to spend the High Holy Days with her family.
After a journey that included circling over Port Phillip Bay, a two-hour stop at Avalon airport near Geelong for fuel and a long wait on the tarmac at Tullamarine, Blum arrived at her parents’ place seven hours after taking off.
Initially, the plane was prevented from landing due to lightning. All the circling resulted in the plane being low on fuel, requiring it to divert to Avalon for refuelling. Passengers were not allowed to disembark.
“I told the cabin crew it was Jewish New Year, the equivalent of Christmas, and asked whether I could get off, but they said no,” Blum said. “Eventually, the lightning subsided and we got clearance to fly to Tullamarine, which didn’t take very long,” she said.
But once they got to Melbourne’s main airport, the passengers were once again prevented from disembarking. “We landed and the captain came on to say there is an occupational health and safety problem with ground staff who can’t come out because of the lightning.”
Blum eventually reached her destination, just in time for dessert.
For Ilana Levi, 24, Wednesday’s massive flight delays meant her Melbourne-based grandmother and host for the first night feast had a lonely yom tov.
The Sydney-based recruitment agent flew to Melbourne with her mother and brother and was supposed to arrive at about 4pm, in plenty of time for dinner.
“We were probably already in Melbourne when the captain came on and said we’ve been circling for a while because of the horrendous weather,” Levi said. “We were circling for probably an hour when the captain said we needed to go to Canberra to refuel.”
After a sojourn in the nation’s capital, Levi’s flight ended up touching down in Melbourne about 9pm.
“We were allowed to switch on our phones when we were in Canberra and I could hear other Jewish passengers saving ‘save me some dinner’,” she said.
Even once Levi’s plane landed, the ordeal wasn’t over.
“We touched down in Melbourne but there were 16 planes [to be unloaded] in front of us so it took about an hour before we could get off.”
She added with a smile: “It was like El Al when everyone cheered.”
NAOMI LEVIN
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