I knew it was going to be a trying experience when, already an hour late, I slowly climbed the steps to the plane. Glancing into the cockpit I saw one of the pilots staring intently at what was clearly an instruction manual of some kind. Still, I thought, better to have him checking it than relying on eeny, meeny, miny, moe to choose which button to press at 20 000 feet.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad although it did suffer from the sort of turbulence that makes you wonder why the wings don’t just fall off. Then the tannoy crackled and the co-pilot introduced himself with a variety of phrases that you never want to hear while sitting in an insulated metal box a mile or so above the ground. “ahh sorry we haven’t spoken to you so far on this journey… captain is a bit busy to speak to you…. wanted to get the situation clear before talking to you all……”

As it turned out, the runway at Edinburgh had managed to develop a hole which is apparently not good when trying to land a plane. It was, however, a clear example of where getting to the point would have saved a lot of worry. I’m sure I didn’t breathe until he had clarified that we weren’t about to ditch into the Forth.

Alarms bells did ring for me as he explained they needed a quick decision from ground control as they could only circle for ten minutes before having to divert to another airport. I don’t mind them not packing enough bacon rolls or duty free plastic planes but stick a bit more unleaded in than that please! So we diverted to Glasgow and were then told to remain on the plane as it appeared Edinburgh airport had re-opened and we would take on fuel before flying back.

A few canny sorts who were heading West negotiated their release from the plane and all normally sacrosanct rules about not being onboard planes while they are re-fuelled, and not using your mobile while the electronics are on, were waived by the captain.

The final stretch of my now very long trip home from Cardiff involved a ten minute flight from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Indeed, before taking off, I saw the co-pilot demonstrate just how quick a trip it would be to a fellow traveller with a quick hand gesture involving a swoop of his hand up and then down. Perhaps he had read that in the instruction manual?

Today I discovered that Edinburgh airport is planning to re-surface the runway and did end up wondering if last nights “emergency” was a bit of pre-emptive justification for this multi million pound set of roadworks.