In Canada, as travellers, we fly in the great hands of our most highly talented pilots who transport us in the middle of snow storms or other extreme weather conditions.
What about the pilots of Lebanon who are officially trained to fly in Nature’s four seasons, but not in a human-made season of fire and blood. How did they manage to keep focusing on their professional tasks, despite fear?
Related to the above questions, “last” year (on November 14, 2024), Bambi shared a brief video featuring the courage of the Lebanese Middle East Airline‘s pilots during war. They kept operating, flying civilians in and out Beirut during the entire last Hezbollah-Israel war.
Today, we are lucky to hear directly a pilot telling us about her work experience (in English and sub-title in both English and French). Thanks again L’Orient Le Jour (OLJ) for another uplifting podcast on courage.
The OLJ YouTube channel describes its new podcast as follows (thanks to Mr. Google Translate for his assistance even during the holidays :). “In this new episode of our podcast “I’m telling you about Beirut”, we interviewed a pilot from the Middle East Airline who continued to ensure air connections between Beirut and abroad during the war. Dubai, Paris, Larnaca,… while Lebanon was undergoing one of the worst moments in its history, her back and fourths, steeped in the anguish of not being able to return to her country, tell another vision of the catastrophe. From the first day of the bombings on Beirut, which she discovered when she had to land at the international airport to the ceasefire, including especially her long evening layovers in foreign airports. “Will we be alive to make another flight tomorrow?” she asked herself in Beirut. Here is the poignant testimony of a Lebanese pilot who is more in love with her country than ever“.
May the New Year bring increased stability to Lebanon. May peace finally know how to prevail, and be sustained, in Bambi’s birth country and its entire neighbourhood.
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AS POIGNANT A ANY POEM WRITTEN ABOUT ” HOME ” .
NOT A SOLDIER ….. NOT A FIGHTER …. BUT SUBJECTED TO THE FICKLE FATE OF
” WAR TIME LUCK ” TO THE ERRORS OF WAR …….. AND THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL
THOSE OTHER LIVES . BRAVO TO ALL WHO KEEP US SAFE ……. AND THEIR NERVES .
Bambi wishes you a wonderful 2025, Russ! She also thanks you for enriching her blog!