We took off from Dhahran for a ten minute flight to Bahrain.
It was a bright sunny day but the sky grew dark almost immediately and the fasten seat belt lights stayed on. A warning came over the speakers that we should keep our seat belts fastened because were were going to get some turbulence.
Well that was the understatement of the bloody century. We went straight into the thunderstorm. I'm guessing that the pilot was ex-RAF because he wasn't about to give up. That plane got thrown around all over the sky, overhead baggage compartments flew open and baggage started falling out.
He still wasn't going to give in easily. He really tried to put that plane down in the middle of a thunderstorm. Eventually it got too much for him and he announced that we were going back to Dhahran.
We landed back at Dhahran and he announced that we were going to wait a while until the storm cleared. Everybody sat quietly in their seats and there wasn't a murmur of complaint. We were all looking forward to a weekend of boozing in Bahrain and were not giving in easily either.
After half an hour the storm cleared and we did the ten minute jouney without further incident. That was the worst I've ever been thrown around in a plane though.
On the return journey, also ten minutes of course, we sat next to a young Arab man. He opened his briefcase and showed us about a dozen beers. He said 'We have to finish these before we land because I can't take them through customs.' He shared them around with his nearest seatmates and we just about finished them in time.