In addition placing screens throughout the airplane’s cabin, Emirates Airlines provides every passenger with his own personal t.v. screen on the seatback in front of him. The uses of this screen are many, but among the most fascinating is views one can have from below the plane and just in front of it. There is also a map that shows the plane’s progress, and on it are marked various cities that we might know.
I have never flown over this part of the world, and am amazed when looking at the map to realize where we are: there is Alexandria and the Red Sea, the island of Paphos, Damascus, Jerusalem, Beirut. At one point in the night, some friends with window seats open their blinds. It is night, but the coastline of Turkey is picked out in electric lights, and we see the moonlight shining on the smooth surface of the Mediterranean Sea.
