The Flight

Traveling is always so much fun especially when you have to fly on airlines like Air Tajikistan-- -- not.

I was at dinner tonight when the subject of flying on Air Tajikistan came up.

It seems the person seated next to me had the pleasure of flying on Tajikistan's national airline. Up until recently you had no choice if you really wanted to come to Dushanbe.

For the last decade whenever you fly - - at least in a Western country -- -there is usually an announcement to turn your mobile telephone off as it will interfere with the communication and navigation system.

The person at the dinner table said that on this flight he was seated next to a very important person on the Air Tajikistan flight to Dushanbe. As the plane taxied down the runway this important person continued to talk on his mobile telephone. The cabin attendant came down the aisle and took the telephone away from him and
turned it off. Without missing a beat this important person reached into a pocket and pulled out another telephone, dialed and continued with his conversation as though nothing had happened.

He turned to my dinner companion and said - - do you talk on your telephone when you drive your car? He then proceeded to explain: imagine that you are sitting in a Lada -- this airplane is simply a Lada with wings.

When you stop and think about this he is right it is probably almost as primative as an old Lada. A Yak 40 - - - which is what they fly - - first took to the air about when the space race was on and the Americans put a man on the moon. I know to some of us this may seem like yesterday but this was before transistors and integrated circuits were commercially available. This was before mobile telephones were even invented. Modern communications on this aircraft consisted of radios with vacuum tubes. When you fly to Tajikistan doesn't this somehow make you feel better that the aircraft you are it seated in is immune to modern technology?

Tajikistan has just celebrated the arrival of its first truly international airline. There are now weekly flights on Turkish Airlines from Istanbul.