Second Charter Flight

On Sunday morning Sivan 29, (July 1), before 10:00, we all arrived at Ringway Airport in Manchester to commence our journey. We were due to depart at 10:30. We discovered that although our aircraft was on the tarmac, it was not quite suitable to accept our passengers. It had brought a group of one hundred US servicemen from New York to Spain, from whence it came directly to Manchester. On arrival, it was found that this aircraft was only outfitted with one hundred seats, whereas we had contracted for and needed 118! It seemed that American troops required more comfort then the Rebbe's soldiers. We were assured, however, that there was no cause for alarm, as another airplane was on its way from Barcelona with the missing eighteen seats. There would be a short delay of about one hour.

Two hours later, at 12:00, we were informed that there would be a further delay and that we should not expect to leave before three o'clock. We were confronted with the problem of providing a meal for our passengers. There definitely was nothing kosher at Manchester Airport. In fact there was no place in all of Manchester that could supply kosher food for 118 people at a moment's notice - except maybe one - the Holmes Caterers. I telephoned the owner, Mrs. Fruhman. She said that she could provide only tea, cake and biscuits. That was the best she could do. She simply had no bread with which to make sandwiches. We were glad to accept anything.

As we had already checked in, the Flying Tiger was responsible for looking after all our needs. Therefore their representative obtained a fleet of buses to take us back to Manchester and promised to pay for our meals.

When we arrived at the Holmes, we were confronted with mountains of cold cuts and sandwiches. Mrs. Fruhman had waylaid the baker's delivery van and commandeered the whole load of bread! So many sandwiches had been made that every passenger was given a large bag full of food to take with, in case of any emergency.

We returned to the airport at 3:00 p.m. and learned that the extra seats had been delivered. I accompanied the representative of the Flying Tiger to the aircraft in order to ascertain the length of time still required to complete the job. I entered the airplane and my heart sank. The whole cabin was a wreck. Seats were strewn all over the plane; not one chair was in an upright position. All lay on their backs on the floor. Despite all that, we did leave at 6:30 p.m. - 8 hours late.