This was my first visit to Belgium of 2005. We had booked flights on Expedia for a beer-buying trip to the best beer shops in the world! We had a night in Manchester on the 7th March and flew to Brussels on flight SN2178 on the 8th March.
We checked in at around 12:00 and were given seats 15A and 15C.
SNBA “Passionate About You” sign in Manchester T3.
After passing into the departure lounge, I did some spotting and bagged my favourite BA aircraft and some other goodies 😀
Our aircraft arrived at 15:20 and taxied to gate 53.
OO-DJK (Avro RJ85).
Being prepared.
We were called to board at 15:44, and were greeted upon boarding by the female purser. That was the first and last time she was pleasant on that flight.
We had a back engine view.
View through window.
Before push back, the inflight magazine was handed out.
At 16:04 we were pushed back and the safety demonstration was carried out. We took off at 16:20 behind a 737 of Jet2, on runway 06L.
Captain Chris Hendrickx welcomed the passengers and said that the flight would last an hour and five minutes. The stewardesses were Christina and something sounding like “Rayka”.
We had alot of inflight cloud, and some turbulence.
After take off from MAN.
Aircraft shadow on cloud.
Shortly, the snacks were handed out. This was a carton of veg sticks with a dip, and some pretzels. I had orange juice to drink.
One nice thing about flying on a Belgian carrier is the chocolates! These were handed round, and I took two.
It was great to get near Belgium, and descend through the clouds and see the old place below 😀
My first view of Belgium for 2005. Never fails!
We touched down in Brussels at 18:16. During disembarking, the purser did not have the manners to say goodbye and I hope I never encounter her again. She was more reminiscent of Air New Zealand than SNBA, and not fit to wear what is, after all, the logo of Sabena. We have found that stewards are better at the job, and that our next SNBA flights in September will have some better crews than the ones experienced last week.
By: EK. - 18th March 2005 at 14:41
I am looking forward to seeing SNBA at GLA when they start the new service soon 😀
By: Comet - 18th March 2005 at 14:20
I miss Sabena too – they were incomparable 🙁 SNBA are usually great to fly with though, we were just unlucky on these latest flights.
Stieglitz – I hope we have better luck with the crew next time, the crew from my first ever SNBA flight would be a good one to get, that steward was the best! 😀
By: Stieglitz - 18th March 2005 at 14:10
Nice report. I hope you have better luck with the stewards next time. 😮
J.V.
By: SHAMROCK321 - 18th March 2005 at 09:45
Great report. I miss seeing Sabena in Dublin but SN havew annouced they will fly to Cork so I might wander on down there later in the year for a weeked in Brussels.
By: Comet - 17th March 2005 at 10:47
Thanks for comments. Future Pilot – I promise there will be a report on my flights from BHX, and also a spotting report (hope that the weather will be better than my last spotting there on 2nd November).
I have very happy memories of spotting at (and flying from) BHX and it will be fantastic to get the opportunity again this year – a twist of fate after the travel agent’s computer had a fault when we booked our holiday and showed that MAN flights were not available, even though they were, and so we had to change to BHX at the last minute. Hope to see the new Sun Air service some time and also some of the exotics, but we are staying on site so we won’t have to catch a train into central Birmingham like last two times. That only means more spotting for me 😀
By: Lamps - 16th March 2005 at 21:36
Very Nice report, great read and pics! 🙂
By: bmi-star - 16th March 2005 at 20:34
Good report, and good pics there!
By: Future Pilot - 16th March 2005 at 20:09
Nice report 🙂 with great pics.
Make sure you tell of your BHX trip and back……:D
BTW the wings and engines look very odd indeed from the passanger point of view!
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March 16, 2005 at 5:52 pm