Ejercicio Texto B - Questions 1-4 · Inglés PAU Asturias Ordinaria 2022

TEXTO B: Nightmare journey

Holidaymakers suffered a nightmare flight after their plane's engine shut down and they made an emergency landing at a military base guarded by soldiers with machine guns. The agony for Gary Barton, 57, his wife Caroline, 48, and their daughter, began after three hours into their flight, when the pilot announced he was switching off an engine and there would be an emergency landing. Caroline, a support worker at a high school from Leigh, told the Manchester Evening News: ‘We could see on our screens that our altitude was dropping about 500ft every minute. It looked like we were just dropping into the Atlantic.’ But four hours later, the pilot arrived at his destination, a military base in the Azores. Caroline added: ‘We could see all the fire engines on the ground. It seemed so scary because it was dark, all those flashing lights, it made everything look worse. They said it was just a precaution, but we were very very worried. It was extremely tense on that plane. Our daughter was crying, shaking – she was saying ‘what if we don’t make it?’. The pilot had diverted the flight to Lajes in the Azores, a military airbase which also runs scheduled flights. Eventually, in response to disturbance from the passengers, including young children, the base commander gave permission for them to use a room on the base to wait. But they were led into a site with too few chairs, so sitting on the floor was our only option, surrounded by armed guards at every exit. When their rescue plane, a Boeing 767-300, arrived, they were loaded on before waiting for another hour for take-off, arriving back in Manchester at 5pm, with an 11-hour 23-minute delay. A Thomson Airways spokeswoman said: ‘Due to overcrowding at the airport, passengers remained on board with refreshments provided. They were given further refreshments in the terminal before boarding a replacement aircraft which took them back to Manchester airport, arriving just after 5pm.’ She said each party would be given £100 to cover all the expense they went to as a result of the delayed arrival.

QUESTIONS. Do not copy literally from the text. (1 punto por respuesta = 4 puntos)

1.

What did the pilot announce three hours after taking off at the start of the journey?

2.

After the announcement, when and where did the airplane land?

3.

How does the text describe the location where the plane landed?

4.

How did the passengers manage to arrive at their final destination?