When you’re traveling, there are all sorts of problems that you can run into. Turbulence, unscheduled layovers, buying extra tickets due to fatness, bad food, annoying kids on phones, but as far as I know, an airline has never had to ask passengers to borrow money to pay for fuel, until now. Passengers on Air France Flight 562 thought it was bad when they were diverted to Damascus, Syria, for an unscheduled stop due to violence near the airport in Beirut, Lebanon. However, when the plane landed, they discovered that the Syrian airport couldn’t take their credit card, so Air France had to resort to the time-honored tradition of any strapped driver: they asked passengers to kick in some fuel cash.
Of course, the crew said the cash collection was only a precautionary measure against the fuel trouble. Fortunately, they didn’t actually need to bum the money from passengers, though it was nice of them to ask. The air crew apologizes, and rather than spending the night in a war zone, they flew the plane to Cyprus, waited overnight, and then returned to Lebanon with the conflict presumably over. Or at least moved away from the airport.
Tags: Air France, Air France asks passengers for money, Air France flight asks passengers for fuel money, airlines, air travel, travel, Air France Flight 562, Damascus, Syria, Air France flight asks for money, Syrian airport refuses Air France’s credit card, unusual travel problems, funny stories, Beirut, Lebanon