Even though Qatar Air Flight 110 departed London 49 minutes late we were only about 12 minutes overdue touching down at Doha. At first glance this doesn’t sound bad until you realize that we only had an hour between flights to begin with. They closed the curtains between the higher classed sections of the plane and brought steps out on the tarmac. A small bus labeled “Business Class” pulled up and seemed like an eternity before people from the front of the plane were flowing down the stairs. I was near the front of Economy when folks ahead of me took it upon themselves to pull the curtains back and charge forward. It turns out many were trying to also make the seemingly impossible connection to Flight 1335 going to Nairobi. It was all the flight crew could do to calm things down. A couple of men had to be physically pushed back. The bus pulled away, but was replaced shortly by a full-sized bus. We began to fill the bus and I spotted Elizabeth. Deborah ended up on a second bus. It took about 10 minutes to navigate to a terminal on the other side of the airport. I figured all hope was lost at this point.
We disembarked rapidly stampede style, entered the terminal and were in a security screening area. Just when I had resigned myself to missing yet another flight, a Qatar Air employee shouted out”Nairobi!” and the crowd shouted back “Nairobi!” He yelled to head upstairs quickly to Gate C24. I was hurrying along and noticed Aisha, a Kenyan woman I met in line in Chicago. She was hurrying home for her son’s high school graduation. Deborah showed up in the next group. We were assured our luggage would be transferred, we boarded the plane, flew overnight and are now about to land in Nairobi. I’m praying for a smooth immigration and customs experience and that our luggage is all here.
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