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  • I'm worker of London Heathrow Airport, the largest airport in the United Kingdom. Here's my true stories about working in airport and travelling by plane.
When student Sheridan Gregorio arrived at Fortaleza airport in Brazil, he was planning to fly home to Holland. He had had a great holiday, but unfortunately he had spent all his money. All he had was his return air ticket to Amsterdam. But when he checked in, the airline staff at the airport told him that he would have to pay airport tax before he could leave the country. Sheridan explained that he was completely broke, but he wasn't allowed to fly and so he missed his flight home. His ticket was non-refundable, so now he needed to buy a new ticket and pay the airport tax.

As he had no money, Sheridan's only option was to sleep in the airport and clean restaurants in exchange for food and some money. After working for five months, he had saved enough for the airport tax and the Brazilian police persuaded the airline to let him use his old ticket to go home. Sheridan told a newspaper reporter from Jornal da Globo, 'The Brazilian people were really nice to me, they treated me very well.' Sheridan finally arrived home safe and sound last week.
Everything was going smoothly on Virgin Atlantic flight VSO43 from London Gatwick to Las Vegas. The 451 passengers were relaxing after lunch when the plane hit some turbulence over Greenland. There was no advance warning, so many passengers were out of their seats or were not wearing seat belts when the plane started dropping violently.

Suddenly one of the flight attendants screamed , 'We're going to crash!' Panic immediately broke out. In the 30 minutes of chaos, passengers desperately clung to their seats, as drinks and magazines flew around the cabin. Amid the terror, the flight attendant screamed every time the plane dropped.

Businesswoman Angela Marshall was travelling with her partner. 'Until then the flight had been fine,' she said afterwards. I'd been reading my book and my partner had been having a nap. But when the flight attendant started screaming, I was totally convinced that we were about to die.'

Another passenger said, 'It was unreal, like something from a film. People started crying and being sick. That woman shouldn't be a flight attendant. After we landed she was joking and laughing as if nothing had happened, but we all staggered off the plane in a state of shock.