EP 8: How the Iran War disrupted our flight plans! Aviation Crisis!

Josh was heavily affected by the current events in Iran and the Middle East and he speaks about how he managed to get where he needed to be. We also talk about how this is going chance Aviation for a long time!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Now, good morning and good evening. Now, why do I say that? Because we're podcasting from two different time zones. Josh, where are you right now? Are you stranded somewhere in Asia?

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Mabu Hai from the Philippines. Manila. I'm in Manila right now. And Mabu Hai is how you say hello when you get on board Philippine Airlines flight. They most likely say Mabu High. Welcome on board, sir. That is where I am. I'm in one of the most beautiful countries on earth.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Very nice. Welcome back, everybody, to the Josh Kale and Swiss001 Podcast. We haven't really been active recently because we've been kind of on trips. I've been on vacations. We've kind of been around the world, uh, despite the world kind of coming to a halt.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

That's true. You have been on a holiday, you went to another beautiful country. Tell us, where did you go?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I was in South Africa, but this time not to record a video or anything. I just uh I was just drinking wine. I just didn't do anything. Um, and that was really nice, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Sometimes you need a bit of a vacation, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Exactly. I was kind of like, maybe I should take this Avro flight to Antarctica, which uh takes off from Cape Town, you know. Um did you have you ever done that?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Uh Afro? Yeah. I think I think I think the Afro's only fly from uh uh Punta Arenas in uh South America. Uh that's what I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I took uh the Afro. What's the short uh is it RJ, right? RJ 100, 300, whatever it is. Exactly. So I took the that one from Chile, Punta Arenas, which is the most southern one most southern airport in the world, I think, or Ushuaia, I'm not sure. Ushuaia is more south, yeah. Yeah, like that, but I think they're like almost the same, pretty much. Uh so I took, yeah, I took the uh the plane and uh went to Antarctica, landed at uh at uh King George Island. Uh-huh. Uh the only airport in Antarctica that has um Ayata code as well. So it has a gravel runway. Yeah, yeah. I landed there, uh stayed there for like five hours, uh, took a little uh dinghy and like was exploring the uh the surroundings. Uh it was quite good.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Did you see the did you see some penguins?

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Yeah, I did. I did. I did actually see a lot of penguins. So a lot of ice, uh a lot of Russians there as well. Yeah, and uh it was good fun. It was actually really, really great. Uh but that was like yeah, two and a half years ago, I think. But yeah, that's how I visited the seventh continent. Nice. Um but speaking of uh visiting continents right now, I think we are experiencing the biggest crisis in aviation since COVID, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, it's really interesting. Traveling around the world right now is a bit uncertain. You know, when I was I was in in the deep, you know, uh vineyards of South Africa when the news broke out about not only the Iranian war, of course, but also about travel becoming a big uh r restriction uh there, especially in Dubai, and you're the one that has felt it already. Tell me you w were at Frankfurt Airport at the time and you wanted to go somewhere and you couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Well, yeah, well, I went to Frankfurt to record a podcast with you, but uh you told me that you're flying to South Africa. So that was uh first time I was cancelled and left behind by someone, and then I thought that's all good. Uh you know, I'm I'm I'm I know that you needed a holiday, and I'm very uh very forgiving. Uh no, but I would say, yeah, I was I was I was I was planning to fly to um Bangkok on Air India, actually. Uh the Air India has a new Dreamliner with a new cabin, so I have a big audience in India for like why not, you know, showcase it. Um two days before uh the war started. And I mean I was expecting, I mean, everyone was expecting it, right? So they were building up troops, they brought uh their striking packages in position, um, carrier groups and and and such, and then this uh speech of Donald Trump, I remembered. Uh it's it's crazy, you know?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

I I you feel goosebumps when things I mean it was all over TikTok, just the the US Air Force uh traffic on flight radar 24. It was uh it was like a whole was it felt like it was the biggest airline in the world to see the US Air Force, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Um it's incredible, like so much emotions are like besides from all the aviation thing. Like I was I mean, I've been to Iran many times, right? And I have a lot of good friends from Iran, and uh the conversations are always like we are occupied by Islamic regime and we want to be liberated. Um, there are hardliners there as well who say, Oh, I love this kind of stuff, but the majority that I know or have met whenever I was in Iran, I was even there in 2009 during the Ukraine Revolution, they always wanted to be free. And uh so I was taking a stroll along the Main River in Frankfurt. You are familiar with that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you are as a as a Frankfurt native. And uh then uh obviously in the morning the war started, and in the evening, the first news came through that uh Khomeini, the uh supreme leader of Iran was killed in an airstrike. Another like gooseber moment because you think, oh uh good good one again over evil, and but at the same time I started to worry, oh, so is my fight gonna happen or not? And I saw I mean on X you could see the unimaginable happen that they were sending drones everywhere, they were attacking the UE, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait, and it was just like uh from day one it was all in by the Iranians, and I was like, this is insane. And obviously you could see that uh all the airports closed, all the uh the uh air uh space closures were announced one after another, flights were diverted all over Europe, yeah, and uh and I knew that my flight is most likely not going to happen. Right. And I got a notification then saying my flight is cancelled, and but Air India was really poor about it, like there was no alternative offered or anything like this, you know, because I've been in situations like this where uh airspace like things happen and yeah, airspace was closed or flights were cancelled because of war, and they offer you alternatives like straight away, or they book you on another airline.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Obviously, the big problem right now is like Dubai, for example, is one of the busiest airports in the world, one of the major hub, you know, uh just as you know, Qatar is and like all that that's like the busiest air spaces in the world, and they're so important for connecting people from Asia to Europe. Yeah, we are reliant on it. So, what was the reason your flight was cancelled? Where did where did your flight go? Did you have a stop over at Dubai? A planned one? No, I was supposed to have a stop in Mumbai.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Mumbai. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Why would they why would they cancel it then when it didn't even go through Dubai?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

It was it was interesting because the inbound flight was still ha happening, right? It usually goes through the Middle East. It does it even happens to fly over UE airspace, right? That's uh very normal procedure. But the inbound flight actually came on flew through Saudi. Okay, so it was still happening, and I was like, you know, they will just take a more southern route and the flight will gonna happen. But they cancelled like a lot of flights, and it didn't make sense to me really because all the other airlines they were still flying, other than the Middle Eastern Airlines, so but I was like, okay, crisis management right now, right here. I need to be there because I had a lot of flights booked already in Asia, right? Air Marco from Bangkok, uh Zip Air. So I would lose a lot of money, right? Uh if I don't go to Asia somehow, and then uh shout out to the airline tester. Well, you know you're a big fan of him, I heard as well. So he runs uh he runs uh a travel agency, and so he had access to the Amadeo system, right? Where you can see what how many seats you have. But like he said, like he said, oh okay, alternative, take um Austrian airlines from Frankfurt, Vienna to Bangkok. Okay, and I said, Okay, uh that sounds good. Ten seconds later, Emirates blocked all the remaining 40 seats.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Right, because this is now the big problem, right? Because Emirates isn't flying, I guess Air India isn't flying, although they don't really take care of I guess rebooking.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Rebooking the passengers.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

But no one is flying, so they will now put the passengers on all the remaining flights. And now it's kind of like a first come, first serve kind of thing where yeah, where where everyone just needs a ticket to Asia, and it's really hard to get your hand on one, but you end up getting a hand on a on a ticket to Asia, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

I I did, I did. I mean, we tried different options. There were like Italia, there was uh anything, everything was uh booked out immediately, right? As soon as we like everyone had the same idea, and the airlines, the Middle Eastern Airlines, they didn't want their passenger to be stranded, and that was I mean that stands for good passenger service. It's amazing, yeah. And Air India was just like uh we cannot help you. I was less like, okay, whatever. And I was like, if I I know Air India, they're terrible crisis management. So if I rely on Air India, I'm not gonna I'm gonna probably still be in Frankfurt by now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

We could be re could probably record this in person.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Yeah, and I was just like, This is all like uh this is all like a disaster. Every flight, even when the a Condor, Condor had direct flights um to uh Bangkok as well. Uh uh at the time I I looked, there were like five seats left, seven thousand dollars or something like that. Yeah, just straight away jumped on a bandwagon and it was like, oh, let's let's let's profit off.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

I don't think it's a it's it's a it's a it's a decision made by computers, you know, the whole ticket exists.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah, AI, but the AI thinks like this. AI things like, oh, demand is high, let's make profit.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah, you know, absolutely. I mean it's uh it's it's based on on demand. Um I guess that makes sense. But I've seen this like crazy high tickets to Asia for uh for 3,000 at least for economy ticket. I saw it went on.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

$35,000 tickets on Cafe Pacific today. Oh my god.$35,000, and they're selling. And the private jets are flying like crazy, and the only place that stayed opened is uh uh Oman. So Oman air is still flying from in and out uh of Muscat, so it's kind of the lifeline, and Saudiya to some extent from Riyad. Okay, and yeah, but I was there and I was like, what am I gonna do? I have to find alternatives, and I was looking and I was looking, and I couldn't find anything until I found an airline that probably many haven't heard of Mongolia, Mongolian Airways. Have you heard of them or airlines?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

I don't I've never heard of them now.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

But you heard of the country Mongolia, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, uh and what's their capital again? Ulan Ulanbatur or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Ulan Batur, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

So I like the Mongolian throat singing. Do they do that on the plane?

SPEAKER_02 12:22

I uh have not heard of uh Mongolian throat uh singing, but it sounds very interesting. PA announcement But Mongolia is a massive country um that has I think it's the least uh least densely what's like populated area sparsely populated area uh coun yeah sparsely like uh country in the world. Yeah, so the country is massive. I think it's like Namibia. Namibia is the same massive country and no people live there. I think two million people live in Mongolia, and it's a massive country, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah, and they all live in Laval nearly, yeah. Because it's all prairie, you know. Yeah, yeah. So if you end up fine finding the ticket, I mean how long did that take you? Uh like in terms of delay. You wanted to fly Air India, and then at what what time did you actually leave Frankfurt on Air Mongolia?

SPEAKER_02 13:14

So the next uh yeah, the following day. So I was no, was it the same day? I I I need to check. Um, but yeah, I was so I was flying, I was supposed to fly on the on that Sunday, I think, on on the Sunday, exactly. And I ended up flying on the Monday at one 1 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Um and I I got a good deal. The ticket was um 400 or 500 euros. Oh wow, for for economy class. Yeah, exactly. And then at the gate, they asked like for 300 to like upgrade to business, which I did. Good deal. Not that I like, yeah, like I always ask for a good deal. I was like, it's a nine-hour flight,$300 upgrade, let's do it. Absolutely fine. Um, but I was already like, I was just I my mind was just like I need to get to Asia. I need to get uh I need to get there somehow. So plane and the the funny thing is, ironically, we uh Mongolia Airlines is one of the last airlines left that is flying to Russian airspace.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Oh yeah, okay, good.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

So ironically, the Russian airspace was the safer one at that time.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Absolutely. I mean, you see lots of like Air China and and like all the Chinese airlines, uh red like you see them a lot uh flying through Chinese airspace. Uh I'm sorry, Russian airspace. Um, which yeah, definitely that's a safe.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Which used to be standard before the the Russian invasion. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's shorter. So the flight was like nine hours to Lambata. Nice. You fly over the Baltic countries and then right into Russian airspace, and you remain there for uh the majority of the flight. And uh flight was great, was booked out, and there were so many people I could tell on this flight who didn't even know which airline they were on because they were in the same situation like me.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Because they were rebooked.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

I don't think anyone was rebooked. I think this uh because I don't think uh people or airlines would look at uh Mongolia as an option to rebook. Oh, interesting. Um but there were a lot of lot of like individuals where they think, okay, I need to be in Singapore, I need to be in Bangkok or whatever, I fly this airline because it showed up on my skyscanner search.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Yeah, flight was full. Um and uh great flight landed in uh in Ulan Bato at like 6 a.m. in the morning, minus 24 degrees.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, I saw that on your Instagram. It's insane. How how was that for you?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

It's not even cold, you don't feel it anymore.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

It's like it's just it gets to a point that it's so cold that it's not cold anymore. I walked out that airplane, I could see my breath, like it was so cold. Yeah, and uh it was just you get there and it's like a very it's a new airport, it's really lovely as well. Uh, but yeah, it's like you and you get out there at like 6 a.m. in the morning, which is the most ungrateful time to arrive in a country, uh, with the time difference, because you not be you're not able to stay awake for an entire day to do uh to uh fight the jet lag. Uh got to the hotel and I was just like, okay, I'm gonna have a bit of a nap, and then I'm gonna see how I'm gonna make my way to Bangkok or elsewhere.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Um and I figured out that there's not many flights from Ulan Bar anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

There's just not nothing going on. Yeah. Nothing going on. I I I saw that uh same thing with people being rebooked even in Cape Town, because there is like quite a lot of like Qatar and Emirates traffic there as well. So I could see. Oh yeah, massively, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The the the the flights to Europe, um um for example, I flew with Condor. I flew back to Germany uh a few days ago, and that one was so fully, fully booked, I think they even overbooked. Uh so all the seats were taken, um, and even though we're out of season, right? Um and I think that was that was really really interesting uh to see that even in like a place that doesn't really have anything to do with that like that's like a very you would never think you would feel the impact of the Iranian war in South Africa, you know what I mean? Um and even there you could see like people being rebooked, like it's it's crazy, even even down there. Um so how how did you get back? How did you end up getting to to Southeast, so Southeast Asia?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

So I so I was then there. Like, I mean there was no comparison. There's people actually stranded in Dubai and Doha. Yeah, absolutely. And they at the same time they they had drones impacting missiles, there um the uh the iron dome worked non-stop there. Excuse me, and yeah, it was quite intense. So I was in Mongolia, and then I was looking at flights, and I was I couldn't really find anything, and everything was really expensive out of Mongolia. I feel like globally it was picking up already that there was more demand from anywhere. And I ended up flying on an airline that I have never heard before, Error, Aero Mongolia. Aeromongolia is a small airline with like error, like the Windows error? Error, not not error, like arrow like the arrow, arrow.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Oh, arrow, okay. There's like five words that sound the same. That's interesting. It is, it is. How was that flight?

SPEAKER_02 18:53

I was like, I had no idea what I was booking there, but I saw like Ode flying to Seoul, South Korea. So that was my one option. So I flew for$200. That was the cheapest flight as well. Because I was like, I could have flown to Singapore or Bangkok, but it all was like$700,$800. And I was like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna do this. This is too expensive. I decided to cancel my uh Air Macau flight. Okay, where which I was very much looking forward to, but I cancelled that Air Macau flight. I was flying, I was supposed to fly from Bangkok to Macau and then from Macau to Tokyo. But I still needed to get to Tokyo because from Tokyo that would have been my next flight on my agenda on a zip air. So I flew to Seoul on Aero Mongolia. It was a great flight. I think it was three hours. They had it was a full-service airline. I got a pretty good meal. Um flight was also full. Uh, crew was really lovely, very old plane. I think it was an ex Air France uh plane, 319.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

819, okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Yeah, yeah, a 22 years old or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Oh, that sounds like a typical Lufthansa flight.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, exactly. Uh Lufthansa bashing. Uh couldn't um yeah and then I landed in Seoul. I was in Seoul, and uh I think I stayed there for uh one night and then flew to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo I continued to uh Manila, where I am right now, because I'm booked on the Philippine Airlines Airbus A350-1000, the new one, um flying them to uh JFK. Okay, and then back to Frankfurt. So next week I'm in Frankfurt, so maybe we can uh record an episode in person. Sure, I'll be uh viewers would be appreciating that.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I I I I sure can make time. I'll be gone in the week and I'll be. I'll be at some flight simulation convention in Amsterdam, uh which I guess could be fun. You can uh you can join along and join the the flights and nerds.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Nah, thanks. I'm good. I'm good. I'll be I'll be alright. I have only one week, uh, so I'm gonna go see my mum, and then I have my big trip starting, like my five-week trip. Where you join me as well. But more about this a little later.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah, more about that a little later.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

But this is my story, yeah. So yeah, so I ended up in Tokyo.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

You know, Tokyo Manila, great. Um so how did you end up uh so which flights did you end up not making? So you wanted to do Air Macau from Hong Kong, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yeah, that's that's the one I had to cancel.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And you had to cancel that, but at least you get to do the the the the Air Philippine thing, the A350.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Yeah, that's this is on Saturday, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

That's that's pretty good. Um that's a pretty pretty insane situation. So I think the question now is, and I'm actually wondering that too, and I'm honestly not too sure. This is why I'm Want to like ask you this. What do you think of like worldwide travel? It's a bit of an uncertain situation. So what do you think? Is it safe to travel at all? Should everyone just stay home? Is it like a COVID situation now?

SPEAKER_02 22:13

You know, I usually I would say, hey, don't stay at home. But right now, I just just too to like like not burden your wallet. Stay at home. And your headache. Because yeah, like flights can get cancelled super easily. Um flights are super expensive right now. We don't know where the war is gonna spread. There's one tiny corridor right now to Azerbaijan, right? Where airlines can fly through. In the north, there's Ukraine, which is still uh closed.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Or you can fly, or you can fly south, south of mid of the Mideast, of the Gulf. That's another way.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

That is right, but I think we get to a problem where then I think a flight to Japan would probably be not even possible anymore because we would reach the maximum um reach of some of those airlines. Yeah, airliners, you know. Yeah, so I think this is this is straining on the whole system. So generally, like you see, first of all, how like we uh rely on the Middle Eastern carriers to get us from A to B. Dubai is the busiest transit airport in the world, isn't it? Yeah, followed by Doha. I think uh Dubai sees 90 million passengers a year, Doha is around 60 million. We have Gulf Air as well, Bahrain, which is probably at the 20 million mark, Kuan Airlines.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Just just think about all these A380s from Emirates that are just not flying anymore. Where do all these passengers go, right? Um Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

So even the lifeline between Asia and Europe.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Yeah, so do you think um like anywhere like east of Turkey is a bit risky? Not because it's dangerous, but because of I mean, obviously it's not not a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't say it's there's I think there's a risk to it as well. Look at all those missiles in the sky, right? The um Americans lost three F-15s, right? I mean you can't compare this, but uh it wouldn't be the first war where a civilian airliner is shot out of the skies. So there could be false flag attacks, whatever, miss misjudgment. Um I don't want to say this is possible, like or likely, but there is a chance that this could happen. It's war. It's not the first time like in 2003.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

When was it in 2009?

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Do you mean the uh the Azerbaijan one?

SPEAKER_02 24:52

The the one that was Azerbaijan as well recently, but the Ukrainian 737 that took off in Tehran and was then uh downed by uh surface-to-air missile, you know, and everyone died of because of misjudgment. Um, so yeah, I I I you can get stuck, you can get grounded, you might end up somewhere in Russia or in Azerbaijan in Baku because all of a sudden air air airspace closes, um, and then you can sit there for a very, very long time. And uh there's drone attacks, those drones are unpredictable, you know. There is so much military traffic there as well. Um, God knows what's gonna happen, you know. If you want to go on a holiday, you're gonna go to South America or the United States from Europe. I think this is safe to say that nothing should happen. But also the prices are high, the airports are busy. Um I don't think insurances cover most of these cases as well. You know, that's also something that uh you need to consider. I think we are looking at a long, painful crisis that will shape the rest of the year. What do you think? What do you what do you what is your take on all of this?

SPEAKER_01 26:16

You are I I think like I I saw this comment um about also the inevitability of a civilian airliner being shot down. Um, and I think this is actually an interesting discussion. I think it's it's probably not gonna happen that a uh an airliner is gonna be accidentally shot down. Um it's because it's like you can still very much tell apart a big a big airliner, like a 777 long-range airliner from an F-15. So you're not gonna accidentally but like maybe there is the the idea that maybe not on accident, something's gonna be shot down. Um definitely not by a drone, because they're too slow. I mean, we we all know that I mean the drones go like 200 kilometers an hour. That won't work. Those are for ground targets, but like a air, uh surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile, I mean they could that could always happen, even in like friendly fire. Um I don't I think there's not like the danger of it happening is not as high as just the the headaches of being stranded.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Um but did you see that drone impact uh two or three days ago in uh at the airport in Dubai? Yeah, I think missing missing a triple triple seven by meters. Do you think that was that aborted? Was that was that full of people? I know that's that's what's gonna be my point. Imagine you bought that plane and those uh drones, those shahet drones or shahat, I don't know how you how you call them, one three, six. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are those those are those are lethal. They are unfortunate.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Obviously, that's the point of them.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Absolutely, but they look at look at those look at those motherfuckers, and uh they are they're crazy. And like imagine that 777 there, next where it impacted, was full of uh passengers. A triple seven of Emirates, 350 passengers on board, um, bound for LA, the tanks full to the rim, and now imagine it impacts right into the the wings, into the tanks, massive explosion, uh god forbid, it could be an actual disaster, right? Absolutely that that is and that's we don't we don't talk about likely scenarios. We looked at we had a case study just three days ago. It could have happened, and it the those drones uh are penetrating the UE uh on uh uh scary uh uh numbers, right? So it's a difficult time, but I understand also that there's millions of people stranded in Dubai or hundred thousands, and it it costs money. By the end of the day, it's those are businesses as well, right? And they want to make money. An airplane on the ground doesn't make money, and if you learn one thing is that greed money, profit is the human's second biggest desire after eating, I feel like, and they will be saying, Hey, we have to, the show must go on, you know. I think that's what's happening right now.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

I mean Dubai Dubai Dubai is active, uh the planes are flying, uh it is happening. Um just not as much as before.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Um passengers and like do Doha is still very, very limited. But I was just talking to my friends, uh cabin crew friends in uh in Doha, and they're moving probably their base to Riyadh for a couple of weeks um because they have moved cabin crew there to operate. So worst case, they will be taken on a bus, those people, to Riyadh from Qatar, Doha, and then put on a plane in uh in Riyadh. But as well, like Qatar is a very ambitious airline, and they they don't they don't they don't have an appetite for this. And I know they have strong bonds with the United States, but I think the petrol prices are uh going through the roof right now in Germany, yeah, they absolutely are elsewhere in the in the United States, and that's the problem. We're fighting against uh a bunch of terrorists, and they don't care, they don't care. But if the fat Karen from Alabama can't eat her Big Mac for 250, and all of a sudden it costs five dollars because the strain on on shipping, on oil, and all that kind of stuff, she will then go on the street and say, Hey to Donald, I can't have my Big Mac for$250 anymore. It's costing five dollars right now. I will not vote for you, and it's midterms, and uh militarily uh America's winning the war in Israel. But on a on an other scale, like uh systematically, Iran is trying to keep the game going. They frustrate their partners in the Middle East, they can't fly their airlines, they can't make money, um the Strait of Hormos is blocked, trade is affected. Uh in the long run, they seem to win that war because they frustrate people, and uh sure, and uh that is that is the bigger issue there as well, which uh which effect is it going to have even on domestic flights in the United States because jet fuel is gonna be so expensive and all that kind of stuff. Sure. So as much as I am, I am for this liberation. I'm never for war, I'm not pro-war, but I'm pro I love the Iranians, and I've been there so many times, and I know that this is their dream to live uh under a democratic uh leadership. Um but where do we draw the line? You know, where do we say, hey, what like and they're financing terror all around the world? Yeah, sure. Hezbollah, Hamas, um, and uh all these people that shouldn't get money. So but uh where where do we set the that line and say hey this is too much, you know, my personal life when I can't go on a holiday.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think I I mean I'm not we're not here to make like political comments or anything uh because I don't really have like the the the knowledge of it all or the oversight. Um I just I I just think it it it it is though a little bit of a matter of timing and how long is that going to take? And that is so uncertain. I Iran is such a huge country, and how do you liberate um the people from from this huge and powerful regime? Um it's it's not gonna be easy. It's probably not gonna take a week or two, it's probably gonna take longer than that.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

And you can't liberate a country by pure air campaigns.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

No, you need to go in, like just that kind of what they need.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

You need boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Yeah, just kind of like what they did with the Nazis, the uh the the Americans, right? When they liberated Germany.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

Um well well, like yeah, of course. I mean, you need uh, but it's or the Iraq war, you know, you can't uh you can't topple a regime when you don't have boots on the ground, you know, and there's no signs. I mean, I speak to people that are in Tehran right now, and there's no signs of uh an unstable government, and the Iranians they don't want to go out on the streets because they're gonna get shot, and they just experienced that a couple of weeks ago.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

It is kind of like a COVID-esque remote war at the moment. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

COVID was just frustrating on so many on so many levels because it was just like really poorly handled, I think, and we overreacted by but uh like later afterwards you're always smarter, um but I think uh COVID was was just like why you know it was a global crisis and everything was just like everything stood still, but now we're talking about a full-on war, you know, that right now the first day I was like wow Khomeini that uh it sounds like there is a big great change coming, and now nine days in, I feel like uh, are we winning this war or not? You know, what is gonna happen? Like, yeah, how is this outcome going to be? And uh can I still afford flying in a month from now because the fuel jet fuel will be unaffordable, and we know whenever there is a crisis and oil prices go up that airlines die.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Airlines like same thing with the nine with the 1970s.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yes, oil the margins, the margins are so small in the airline industry that two months of expensive oil can kill kill a lot of airlines.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

I I that's what I talk about a lot with like um how uh with for example failed airplanes or failed aircraft models or failed um or failed airlines. It's always the 1970s oil crisis. Um how that really can shape everything. Um it's just what what I was very this is why I, for example, booked my flights to New York. We're gonna meet there um like two days ago with Lufthansa. Um I've I've finally taken this the step to fly the Allegras uh thing, the the Lufthansa Allegras business class to make a funny video on it. Um but I al I decided to book that. I never really booked flights that much in advance, but I was expecting the price to go up so much that I just thought I need to I need to book that right now, even though the trip is like uh in f three weeks, four weeks. Um and I saw also, for example, there's also um they know the Singapore route where they fly from Singapore to Frankfurt and then to New York. I was kind of thinking about also Yeah, I'm on this flight on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, you're on that flight. Oh, interesting. Because look, this is interesting because freedom. I I saw I saw that um route uh available, but the prices of it, I think economy was five thousand for uh the Singapore flight, which was insane, but it's probably also connected to the whole conflict, right? Yeah, it's normally not that expensive.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

Uh I paid uh 700 in premium economy. Oh yeah, uh, which is a super yeah, which is a bargain, and I could have booked an economy class ticket for like 300 euros because that flight is usually pretty cheap. Um but now there you go, because of the crisis and uh passengers or people trying to get uh somehow somewhere, you see what what an effect that has, and uh you know this is it's just a global issue, you know. And uh even the domestic flights somewhere in Bolivia will be affected because oil is getting expensive. Yeah, planes, times that we're looking at. Yeah, I mean that's what we where we have to see. But like I am sometimes I think like, okay, let's see. But perhaps if we uh if we if we liberate Iran, we just open that tap of oil. Because Iran has so much oil.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

And if if we control if Uncle Sam controls the market and floods the market with enough oil, I'm all for it. Yeah, obviously that oil should benefit the people of Iran. That's what what matters. But right now, this oil is used to finance terror cells all around the world. So everything can change overnight, but that that that really that really depends. But it's also great to see like when we talk about aviation that this is a war, an aviation war. When you look at those the drones and you look at the at the F-15s, the Raptors, the F-35s, and but also they have just destroyed the last 747-100 in Iran.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Really? Yes. Oh, I have never I haven't seen that. Is that the the last last 747-100?

SPEAKER_02 38:47

So yeah, it was flying for the Iranian military. 52 years old plane or something like that. It was based at the air.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

It's just talked about this in a re in a recent episode where we noted about older planes. I think you mentioned that there you have maybe the opportunity to even fly that as a passenger. If you're because I do a little bit of passenger flying and stuff like that. Um, so that chance is gone now. Last 747100 destroyed.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Yeah, it is just turned into ashes. And it hurts, you know, that hurts when I see I know what a jam Iranian aviation is with the Airbus A300, A310s, yeah, like the Fokkers, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

And they just reminds me a bit of how how the the Antonov Anto 2-5 was destroyed, which was also like a major loss um for the aviation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Antonov, it's uh it's insane. Um this is a very this is a really sad episode.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

It is a really sad episode, so yeah. But uh we else, but then the good thing is let's talk about something good. If Iran gets liberated, I'll be the first one in the country doing an aviation tour.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

I'll I'll I'll come and I'll I'll come along with you. Um, fantastic country. Maybe you'll be 50 by then.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

I'll be 30. Yeah, who knows how long this is gonna take, but that is that is the positive. Look at it. If it if it if it's gonna if you're gonna get rid of the leadership and the country opens up, then there's gonna be great content coming out of this country um as well. You know, but this is this is the reality, and people ask a lot of questions. I get a lot of questions, and people ask, Oh, should I book this or should I not? And if I could give an advice, just wait, really, or go somewhere else. And I'm so glad that my next tour, my big tour that starts end of March, is not going anywhere near uh the Middle East.

SPEAKER_01 40:59

Well, but how do you get to Singapore? Because you're gonna look you're gonna do like what the longest flight in the world, basically from Singapore to New York, uh through Europe, right? How do you get to Singapore in uh at the end of this month?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Okay, by the end of the month, I let me open my schedule. I so I have it right in front of me. So I'll be flying to Argentina from Madrid, so nowhere near the war. Then I go on the longest flight in the world, 29 hours, Buenos Aires to Shanghai with a stop in Auckland. Yes, so I'm safe there as well. Then I'm in China and Singapore, Singapore, New York, it doesn't fly over Europe, it flies over the Pacific.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Oh, sorry, I thought that's the flight you were taking for Frank.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Sometimes it does, sometimes it does. Like that non-stop 350 flight, it it has flown over Europe as well.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Okay, because it kind of doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

It's so long it doesn't really matter, yeah. Yeah, but it depends on the wind and sometimes. Yeah, but I've seen it go the other way as well. And then I meet you in uh in New York.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Do you do we wanna do we want to do we want to tell actually do we won't do we wanna tell the little and tell them what we do?

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Yeah, of course. What are we gonna do? Tell them.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

So we're gonna arrive in uh in New York and we're gonna stay a day or two and uh I don't know, do some New York stuff, whatever it is. Maybe do some funny things and then pizza. Eat pizza or go to like markets and stuff, and then we will uh we will take a train. We will go on American train, ladies and gentlemen, and lots of people have warned me about it. Uh we're gonna take an Amtrak.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

Ta-ta. Do you want do you want like drum rolls right now?

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Or I thought that was exciting news. We're gonna we're we're gonna take an Amtrak from New York to to uh Atlanta, which is gonna take like 17 hours-ish.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

That is correct. From the famous Pennsylvania station.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

And we both booked a room on a train, right? So a bet. It's gonna be something else. It's gonna be fun. I said we're gonna do something else. Uh, I still had an Mtrack voucher because I had a trip planned before, but I couldn't. So I had that voucher and I was like, we have to be at the AFCON on by the way, Fcon sold out over a thousand tickets.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you think about coming to Asp uh to Afcon, just don't think about it anymore. Did you say ASCON? ASCON AFCON I think I confused it with Aspen for some reason. Um ASCON. No, uh uh save that thought of going to Afcon for I guess next year, uh, which isn't planned. Uh I hope. I think it's gonna be a really fun event. We're gonna be once again in a roomet uh on a train and we're gonna see the beautiful America. I think that's like a really cool thing because America is so nice, like the the The nature is so beautiful. We're gonna go down uh to Atlanta and then join join the AFCON and it's something else.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

And I've heard the food is really good on Amtrak's.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

It better be. It's a$600 train ticket, you know what I mean? Like I could have definitely taken a tri a plane.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Um appreciate it. The long travel, you sit there in your room at and you look outside, you see the beautiful countryside of the United States of America while you write a love letter to your girlfriend or boyfriend, I don't know, whatever floats your boat, and then you get inspired to do more videos, and you be like, Hey, uh, this is so beautiful, and you be like, Yes, I want to do more train trips.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

And we're gonna make a video as well. It's we're definitely gonna oh yeah, that's the whole point. Um, but but you know, it's gonna be nice because we're not affected by fuel prices either. So it's gonna be no airspace closure. No airspace closure. Uh the the the there's a bit of a risk of the uh train not happening. I th I heard that about Amtrak. I'm not sure. I mean that the we know that from Yeah, we know that from our German trains as well, which are uh known for being quite unreliable. Interestingly, that's not really what Germans are known for, but our train system kind of sucks. And you know, the trains just keep getting delayed and and uh or cancelled. Uh and people say that about Amtrak a lot of times. Um so that's gonna be really interesting. At least it's not a greyhound. Yeah, at least not it's not it's not a greyhound bus. The greyhound bus is known for uh the like the worst kind of like ghetto, ghetto travel, sort of.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Should I should I tell you a short story about uh so I had to uh so our good old friend Noyle, Noelle Phillips, that we're gonna visit. Uh we're gonna the three of us gonna go on a flight. So Noel's gonna fly us around. Uh we do a road trip and then we fly. Look, road trip, flying trains, we're gonna do all in that AFCON week. Isn't that great? Yeah, and Noel did once a very famous video where he took uh the Greyhound bus from LA all the way to New York, I think five days. Jesus. I think his greatest video as well had like six or seven million views, and I said, Noel, we're gonna do the same together. I booked a greyhound bus last year after a long trip, and I chickened out because I thought, like, no, I can't do five days. You know, I I've been to war zones, I've been to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen. Uh I've been uh I've been shot at in Kabul, but I could not do the Greyhound bus. That was the first time in my life that I chickened out of something because I was just I I did a long trip before, so I was just exhausted, right? So this is why I do the longest flight in the world in the first week of my new trip because I still be motivated, but I thought I can't do but one day I have to do it. I have to take the greyhound from LA all the way to New York or vice versa and make a video about it just to suffer because people love to see me suffer. Would you do that, Greyhound? Five days?

SPEAKER_01 47:13

I I mean what do you do? What what what what do you do with those five days? You sit there, and I hate sitting, you know, I don't I just you just sit there and uh I hate sitting, you have got no like food service or anything. Yeah, I mean after all, it's just a bus, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Um and the people in that bus are very interesting. Yeah, I I can remember you get released from jail in the US. I don't know whether that's true, but I heard when you get released from jail in the US, uh you get uh you get a Greyhound one-way greyhound ticket to wherever you want to go.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

Uh that's not you sit next to a convicting uh convicted murderer uh quite a lot.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

So the good thing is that a greyhound obviously doesn't have a shower. Um so no danger in that, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

You can't shower for five days.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there is the there's no danger in terms of like the prisoners, but like also there's like no shower for five. I have never not showered for five days. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Are you sure? You struck me like that flight simulator nerd that sits in front of a computer flying non-stop for three days, nothing.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

No, I mean like the I feel like the flight sim the flight simulator nerds are like the premium nerds, you know what I mean? Like it's just uh the fancy ones. The fan Well not the disgusting World of Warcraft kinda uh kind of kind of thing, you know what I mean? Like it's a bit of a different different type of nerd.

SPEAKER_02 48:41

Yeah, I don't I don't play, I play Fortnite once in a while. But that's how far it goes, yeah. I I don't I don't play that many video games anymore, unfortunately. Used to like it back in the days. Yeah. Yeah, I mean what do you do?

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Uh on a five five five-day trip, you just bring your laptop and build a Minecraft world and defeat the dragon and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

I mean, I mean there's I think a lot of uh a lot of uh content ideas or if maybe some drama happens, you know, people beat the biggest.

SPEAKER_01 49:14

My question is my question is about the whole thing. In in America, it's so illegal to drink in public, right? Even on trains, obviously. I mean in Germany, you everyone drink they they take drugs on trains, maybe like some heroins.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Germany is lost anyway.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Yeah, but you I mean it's kind of half expected. You get offered uh a line or two on your way to Frankfurt. Um Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome, we'll come to Germany. But like, how does it work with Amtrak? Are you served alcohol? Because it technically you're still in a public space. Is that like a thing?

SPEAKER_02 49:47

Yeah, but wait, they have a they have a they have a uh restaurant carriage on the on the train now, so I'm sure that they sell alcohol there as well. Yeah, I don't know. I'm sure it's a lab, but I don't know who drinks or but we will find out because we'll be taking the Amtrak very soon. Are you gonna post like it's is it gonna be your first train video on your channel?

SPEAKER_01 50:08

Uh it's gonna be my first non-plane related thing on the channel. Have you ever done anything non-aviation related at all?

SPEAKER_02 50:17

On my channel? Yeah, I've done a couple of uh train videos. I think during COVID, I took a train like from Milan to like Sicily and a train goes on a ferry. That was strange. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

The whole train goes on a ferry. Why would you do that?

SPEAKER_01 50:37

That sounds so stupid. The whole train is just loaded onto a onto a ferry.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Yeah, it's it's really funny actually. It was nice, it was like a long train journey, I think like 30 hours.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

So it's like one of those overnight trains as well.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

Yeah, yeah. Like I had my own cabin, it was really cozy, but then it was COVID, and COVID was just such a miserable time. And uh yeah, it was good fun, it was an adventure, but I like train journeys. You should add that to your list. You too should take that train that goes on the ferry.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

What I'll enjoy enjoy most is just like the air. I think no matter in which class you book, you can be on the best first class in the world. You're still gonna have you're cra you're gonna be like l very low pressure air still. Like even on an A350, you're still at like a atmospheric altitude of like 10,000 feet or or a little bit less, and you're gonna have extremely dry air. Like no matter what like class you fly, you're still gonna feel like shit after a long journey, and you won't have that. Not if you fly private. Well, if you fly private, yeah. Well that's the right.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

If you fly a learjet, if you fly a learjet or like uh uh CRJ 700 or whatever, uh I think that that that's why people fly private. Like so they don't feel that way. So rich people, when they fly private, they their cabin is pressurized almost to the same level like like most of we live. Yeah, I find that very fascinating because they get off that clean and if he greats.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

It's easier because they are smaller planes, so it's easier to pressurize them well and have them nicely sealed shut.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

They fly at really high altitude as well, like 45,000 feet.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Yeah, I mean I mean the truth is like a big airline or even the modern ones are extremely leaky. So you have to keep it.

SPEAKER_02 52:38

Oh, you know is it, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Yeah, you have to keep pushing air, keep, keep, keep it, keep pushing air in. And that's why when, for example, the engine fails, you immediately have this problem of depressurization. You immediately have to get the mask and put them on, otherwise you're gonna uh you're gonna have hypoxia because immediately you feel uh oh, there's no new air coming in that are provided from the engines, so you quite immediately have the rapid repressurization. Um so it happens really quickly, and you can start to feel oh damn, yeah, this plane is leaky as hell.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Oh, you know what an anniversary we have today? What is the most mysterious flight that that you can think of? The most mysterious aviation story unresolved until today. Uh MH3370, MHMH thing MH370 disappeared on March 9th, 2014. Oh yeah. And that was exactly what like 12 years ago now? 12 years? Is it 2026? Yeah. 12 years ago. Um, and you as a pilot. What do you think happened? I'm sure you had you were sitting with your bros with Mr. Thunder. Shout out to Thunder. Um, and you were talking, discussing, oh, what happened to MH370? So, what is your theory? What do you think happened? And then I will tell you what I think what happened. But uh just to be funny, I remember when it when it happened and you read stories on the internet, there was there was a comment that I read, and he said, Oh, I'm trying to think outside the box. Is it possible that the plane just went vertical into space and disappeared? Some comments that some comments said nah.

SPEAKER_00 54:39

I was rather come back into the box coming out.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

I was rather I was rather thinking like alien abduction kind of thing. I think that's like extremely realistic. No, I mean, um I maybe it was I I honestly have haven't haven't an idea. It could be literally anything, and um that's like my my problem nowadays, like for example, with the Air India crash, right? Everybody theoreticised so much with different systems and different things, and it's actually still not clear right now. The main idea is that it was kind of a pilot uh suicide, right? But that's not even fully confirmed because it could have still happened that like the fuel switch that was um that was un switched was, for example, you know, that it was kicking off Air India right now, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:26

Yeah, yeah, I mean that kind of 370 is like also people think it was a pilot suicide.

SPEAKER_01 55:31

Yeah, what I'm saying is that there's like a million possible solutions, and like it's like eve like for me, I've kind of like started refrain after the Air India thing because like I kinda the problem about me was that I mean I'm young right now. Right? I'm still I didn't fall for it. I I didn't I but when I officially made a video about it, I uh I just talked about it and how stupid it kind of was, I think. But like that was the thing. I made like two videos having completely crazy theories that did make sense, but it just didn't turn out to be truthful, and I kind of felt Did it involve aliens? No, it didn't involve aliens, but like I that's like I kind of learned a bit of a mistake to maybe refrain on making theories, but I think something that could have happened was maybe it turned into a ghost flight, um, and it somehow ran out of fuel. I actually have no idea. I mean that the transponder was turned off, uh, and that is something that's mostly done deliberately, but doesn't have to be. So I have actually no idea. Maybe it maybe it was deliberate. Well, what do you think? What kind of theory do you have? Maybe I can comment on it.

SPEAKER_02 56:43

Um, so I know a lot of pilots, commercial pilots, and they all say it's pilot suicide. They would agree on this because they say what probably happened when you switch from ATC, right? Uh, from the Malaysian ATC to the Vietnam, there's a little window. Um, you depressurize the cabin. I that's a very easy thing to do, and within 10 minutes, everyone on the plane passes out. And then, like, um what that's my theory that probably the co-pilot went on went to the loo.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

So the German wings kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 57:20

Uh yeah. So I would uh say the guy switches off the uh uh depressurizes the cabin, so within 10 minutes everyone is um uh unconscious.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

And well then what you have to remember though is yes, for for examp uh we we talked about this just now the the the the rapid depressurization. So when you let the the oxygen out of the cabin, yes, you can do that, and yes, the oxygen masks they will only provide oxygen for round about 10, 20 minutes. Um, yes, that is true. Um, and that can be a big problem because like now the door's locked, you can't get back in. Um but the Andrew has his own oxygen mask. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pilots, yes, the pilots have very long-lasting masks that can provide oxygen for hours, which obviously makes sense. Um but there's also oxygen um tanks in uh the overhead bins. There's like I don't know if you've seen it before, but there's oxygen tanks and where you can just place your mouth and you can keep breathing for a few hours. But yeah, of course, and when the when the cockpit door is locked, and I know how it works on the triple seven, which is the plane that crashed. Um I think when you lock out the pilot, you can just do whatever you want. And yeah, you can turn off the transponder, you can just never talk to ATC and crash the plane right into the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 58:44

Um Yeah, I think this is what happened, probably, and then he flew through Malaysian airspace over Penang, which was uh um by he was detected by military radar. Which then that's what I think very strange because no no uh fighter jets were scrambled, you know. Um which says a lot about uh the state of the uh Malaysian Air Force. You can just find through their airspace and like fly into the Petronos Towers if you want to.

SPEAKER_01 59:13

How long how long was it in the airspace?

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Do you know that? Do you know how long it's well it takes probably a good 20 minutes to cross that peninsula there? So he flew over Penang and then he uh flew flew that plane to the most remote uh part of the of of of the globe, right? Of the Indian ocean.

SPEAKER_01 59:37

Yeah, I think that's I think that's really interesting because like when a pilot does not call back and goes off route, it does take a bit of a while. Um so I I I I I've seen this before where pilots actually.

SPEAKER_02 59:50

But not in Germany. If you do that in German airspace, you will have Eurofighters on your tail within 10 minutes. No, I don't think so. There's so many cases, there's so many cases of uh Air India or jet airways pilots, whatever, who s uh switched off their radios, transport, no, not transponders, like they just didn't reply to ATC. Oh, right, there was a case with jet airways and uh uh whatever like they're they're quite quite tough in European airspace.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

Maybe they are now fighters there. Yeah, maybe they are now because I mean the yeah, this was 12 years ago. Um but uh yeah, it does take a bit of a while to ATC to like notice okay, this is isn't good, and then it takes a while for the fighter jets to scramble.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

Um but yeah, maybe maybe if there was better better I mean, but yeah, maybe maybe if there was better uh um you know response from the military, this we would have yeah, obviously they weren't prepared in Southeast Asia, like in Europe it's a little bit different, but I can tell you you cannot fly to German airspace for ten minutes undetected. Yeah. You will have as a as a as a airliner.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

Triple sure, but we're talking about the Indian Ocean as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

So yeah, it probably still had to go through Malaysia or whatever, and it went then through the Indian Ocean uh to the most remote place on Earth. And the question is from that flaps that they recovered, they said it had uh controlled belly landing or ditching, which I think I find it strange, but some pilots that I talk to they say from the state of the flaps, it did not nosedive from 30,000 feet. So, you know, at one point it ran out of uh fuel. So when you run out of fuel, you can still glide, and people underestimate what good gliders uh commercial airplane or uh airliners actually are. You know, you can still glide for 200 miles on a on a on a 747, for example.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

On cruise flight, on cruise flight, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Yeah, so yeah, that's a engine trust or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

That's like that's like another that's like an interesting aspect. If I were uh if if I were the pilot, I would have just slammed the airplane into uh into the water. So if you do it, the flap would if you look like it does.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

If you ditched, you drown. Because at one point so they say the flap setting, how it was, it must have just ripped off when it when it ditched on the water, right? It would be flaps were down, it didn't vaporize. So apparently it did a belly landing, it ditched on the water and then sank, which means you still have the but the the ocean is very deep there, so I think it it does something to the fuselage, so it crushes it. Um but yeah, you sink as a why would you if you do a suicide? Why would you do it in the most terrible way? Imagine is terrible. And then you sink. Drowning, and then you drown, and it's just like it's just not all strange. But like I guess we will never find out because we don't know where the plane is and we can't still detect them. So it's uh it's it's a it's a fascinating story, but because it's the anniversary today, I thought we'd talk about it, but um, yeah, it's uh it's still one of the biggest like mysterious aviation stories there's ever been.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:17

Yeah, I think that's that's why a lot of people are suggesting, especially now, like live uh like live streamed cockpit data, you know, that is like streamed over the through satellite. Um just live and even like C VR kind of stuff, which obviously like privacy-wise and stuff would not work. Uh cockpit crews would definitely be against the idea of the whole whole flight being streamed to a server in case something happens. Um, but I think in that case, kinda almost like you see these incidents and you see how long it takes to recover a black box and how hard it is sometimes to recover it, and sometimes you can't. So that's you can only find like one hour of data on there? How is that, right? Yeah, I'm I'm not too sure. Uh depends on the model, I think. But yeah, yeah. So that you have all these different problems that always uh make make aircraft investigations pretty hard. Um I guess maybe like you should live stream aircraft location at all times, no matter the transponder. Um I think that could be that could be good as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:25

Well, I think with Starlink nowadays, it will probably be a lot easier and stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

Yeah, I mean, but the the thing is you can just turn off I'm not I'm not sure I worked with Starlink, but you can just turn off the entire electricity for the IFE and for the SATCOM. You can just turn off the system, just pull the plugs from the cockpit, but you still have you still have the opportunity to do all that for good reason. Like, for example, what if there is uh something electrical faulty going on with uh Starlink? You need to be able to turn it off to turn off the the electricity uh that it provided there, so you still have full control to do what what happened with MH370. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:04

I guess we will never find out.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

Maybe they'll find it. Maybe they'll find it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:11

I think eventually one day, because technology obviously is developing as well, and you have probably different sonars, maybe you can scan it. Um God knows, but I think the people or the families members they deserve some closure as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:26

Sure, that must be insane to like still have no idea. That must be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

Yeah. But besides this, I think um we're slowly coming to an end here. And uh I think we should uh all agree here on a an ending statement that um make love, no war.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Would you sign that?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:51

I mean who who who wouldn't, you know. Um it's just like that we're so ever everybody is so uncertain and we can't really do anything to To help with that, obviously. Um, I just hope everybody's safe, everybody's fine. Uh, enjoy the sun, enjoy the sunsets, enjoy the sunrise, because they will always happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:12

Enjoy the clouds, it'll enjoy the moment, enjoy the moment. God knows what's gonna happen next week because we live in crazy times. So make sure that you have a good time. Have a have a second pint, you know, have uh open that second bottle of tequila, or go out with your friends, even though you have an early start the next day, make it count, have a good time, and and live your life because you could get stuck somewhere. Yeah, that would be my advice. But I think it was nice that we had uh that we came together again for a podcast, and uh I guess we will record a little bit more frequently now again since you're back in action.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

Exactly from your holiday, full of energy, full of energy, and I'm I'm glad you're safe. Uh when will we be in Frankfurt again?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:05

I'll be in Frankfurt on Sunday, but I will probably head home straight away. Sure. And uh we will probably have to wait. Maybe we can um when we take that Mtrak train, we can uh record an episode on the train. One in New York, one on the train, and uh one at the AFCON, one with Noyle. We have Noyle on the show finally a guest, dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:28

That would be amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:29

So yeah, we stayed slowly start having guests. Yeah, absolutely. Hit that subscribe button. Um we are back at five uh five uh star rating on Spotify. Wonderful. It's incredible. We dipped to 4.9 and now we're back at five. Great. People really love us, even though we just don't deliver on time.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:50

Yeah, or yeah, or just we're just kind of yapping. Um, but thank you guys so so much for watching. Uh have a blessed day, and uh we'll see you guys next week or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

Yeah, I hope so. Like uh that'd be great, and uh that's that's that's it. Then we will say goodnight and good night. See you next week. Good night, everybody. Bye bye. Bye So you stop recording drugs?