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About 25 years ago, a large group of educators were schenduled to fly to the UK for a conference and the chartered airline defaulted and was replaced with two smaller aircraft owned by Transavia. The flight to LHR was delayed when it was discovered that the fuel they used for their normal European operations was different from that used by North American transatlantic flights. On boarding, we thought we might have to check our legs in to the checked luggage since the seats were so tight it was almost impossible to squeeze into them. Overhead bins were marked with large red diagonal tapes where life rafts were stored. A two hour on board delay threatened to be extended when Brunhilda the Terror attendant refused to let us depart due to the use of duty free alcohol by bored and frustrated passengers. Years later, we learned from one of our ex-RCAF pilots that he had seen the pilots, on their first and only Trans-Atlantic flight, checking a provincial road map of Ontario for the return route! On landing at LHR, we observed the crew gathered around the undercarriage checking a tire which had blown on take-off fromn Toronto! Fortunately, we returned on a Laker flight and understand why Transavia never returned to Canada...
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