"This is your captain, John Cook, speaking. We’ve reached our cruising altitude and I’ve just turned off the Fasten seat belt sign. Our estimated time of arrival in New York is 1:00 a.m., so we’ve got a long flight ahead of us. I hope you enjoy it. Our flight attendants will be serving dinner shortly. Thank you.”

It was Christmas Eve 1959. A lot of the passengers were travelling home to spend the holidays with their families. It was a quiet flight. The flight attendant had just finished picking up the trays when the first buzzers sounded. One of the flight attendants went down the aisle to check. She looked surprised; two people have gotten sick. Twenty minutes later nearly half the passengers were violently sick. Several were moaning and groaning, some were doubled up in pain, and two were unconscious. Fortunately, there was a doctor on board, and he was helping the flight attendants. He said, “I’d better speak to the pilot. This is severe case of food poisoning. We’d better land as soon as possible. I had the beef for dinner, and I’m fine. The passengers who chose the fish are sick.”

The flight attendant led him to the cockpit. The captain and the copilot were lying unconscious, and the engineer was trying to revive them. The plane was on the automatic pilot. A passenger who had been a pilot sat down at the controls and the engineer connected him to Air Traffic Control. An hour later, the lights of New York appeared on the horizon. He could see the lights of runway shining brightly by a lake.

(Adapted from Streamline unit 19– intermediate)

GLOSSARY

buzzer – buzina, alarme

to moan – reclamar, lamentar

to groan – gemer

to double up – dobrar -se, curvar-se

Night flight