LAX to SYD

QANTAS airlines stands for Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Service.  Go figure; based in Sydney, New South Wales which is not in either the Northern Territories or Queensland.  In any case, my opinion:  There is not a better airline in the world based on my past and most recent experiences.

I literally had the last seat, in the last row on the 747 but I would arrive at my destination at just the same time as my fellow 500 plus passengers.  There were at least 6 stand-by hopefuls for the flight that did not get seated.  Whatever strings the compassionate customer service representative pulled to get me on that flight I suppose I will never know but my gratitude runs deep. At that, I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat and unlucky enough to be directly in front of 3 toilets in the absolute aft section of the plane.  Lucky enough to have some standing room next to my seat (when it wasn't occupied by a toe tapping fellow passenger that mis-timed how badly he needed to use the facilities).  Lucky enough to have as my only seatmate a young asian man, who spoke no English, that somehow slept the entire 15 plus hours.  They must make some interesting pharmaceutical products in the far east that aren't available in the United States is all I could figure.  But his drowsiness relieved me of the responsibility to try to communicate through body language and eye contact with him and save for the occasional resting of his head on my shoulder it was a tolerable enough experience.

There is always a fair amount of commotion at the beginning of the trip from LAX to SYD.  I checked my phone one last time to see if there was any word from St. George's or anyone else for that matter but the display told me otherwise.  At the last possible moment I "Call Forwarded" the telephone number to my business partner, Art Alvarez, and then switched off the phone.  The smart phone is a first generation "Droid" and does not contain the chip that would be required to be able use it overseas.  I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do for telecommunication once I arrived but it was simply the least of my concerns at that time.  I've been told that the flight from LAX to SYD is the longest over water flight anywhere in the world.  It wouldn't have mattered in any event, it was pitch black outside.  As soon as we leveled off after takeoff one of the many flight attendants came around distributing headsets and menus.  Because a 15 plus hour plane ride is incredibly boring under normal conditions the airlines create an agenda that tries to influence everyone's behavior so as to allow those that can or want to get some sleep during the middle part of the flight.  There is essentially a 2 hour open bar period as soon as the seatbelt sign is turned off (in theory you could drink for free the entire flight but I believe 90% of the alcohol that is consumed on one of these flights takes place during the first couple of hours).  This is followed by a dinner service (Beef or Fish?) and then the distribution of a "snack bag" designed to keep you from ringing the CALL button during the middle of the flight due to the hunger that seems to strike most of us when we are bored to tears.  Every passenger has a personal entertainment system with an LCD screen in the seat back in front and a controller in the armrest.  Every kind of music, game, movie or television show is available to each of the passengers upon their own selection.  If you can't sleep, you can see as many almost first run movies as the time will allow, as long as you are comfortable watching them on a 6" screen.  After dinner, the lights are turned off and the travelers are left to their pleasure, whether entertaining themselves with the electronic gismo or attempting to sleep.  About 3 hours before the plane is scheduled to land the lights are turned back on, a breakfast service ensues (hot or cold?) and a steady stream of humanity accesses the "facilities".

Other than to respond to the various interrogatories from flight attendants about my preferred choices during the various food and beverage services I didn't speak to a soul during the entire flight.  I might have dozed a a couple of different times for no more than a few minutes each.  I tried to watch "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" which seemed easier due to the English subtitles and dialogue in Swedish than attempting to listen to a standard dialogue.  Mostly, I had swirled the information from the 7 hours before I boarded the flight around in my brain at least one thousand times and I came to some conclusions:  My 26 year old son, Geoffrey John Loe, had died.  No body could say for sure but it seems like he had some type of cardiac arrest from an as yet unknown cause.  I wasn't sure where is body was or what needed to be done from this point as I have never had to deal with this kind of situation.  There were going to be some incredibly sad and upset people in Sydney, in California and in Texas when the facts became known.  I was never going to see my son again, never, ever.  How could that possibly be true?

Folks were still milling around the aircraft, waiting their turn for the limited toilets and stowing their personal articles that he been removed from the carry on bags when one of the flight attendants came on the loudspeaker.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt signal indicating our approach to Sydney's Kingston Heath Airport where the local time is 9:52 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time, Thursday, 7 October."  One of the incredibly ironic things about this journey:  When I left Los Angeles it was October 5, passing the international dateline en route to Sydney made the current date October 7.  My son died on October 6.