Text 2858, 39 rader
Skriven 2010-01-09 01:27:21 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
Ärende: Lemme get this straight
===============================
Hello Ross,

On Friday January 08 2010 16:14, you wrote to All:


 RC> If I fly into Amsterdam at that Schipol<sp> airport for a layover or
 RC> whatever, I technically am not in that country because the runway,
 RC> tarmac, terminal, whatever is elevated off of the ground?

No. When in transit you will never actually touch the ground because indeed the
in transit area and the bridge from the plane to it are above ground. But that
is not really the point.

The point is that that you do not go through customs: i.e. cross the line that
separates the "international area" from Dutch territory. IOW, it it not so much
where you are, but how you get there.

About a decade ago I was going to fly from Porto, Portugal back home to
Amsterdam. It was the day before Christmas and me and my collegue were looking
forward to be home for Christmas. Then the weather suddenly changed. Our flight
to Amsterdam was cancelled. No incoming flights and just ONE outgoing. To
London. We decided to take our chances and take it.

When we arrived at Heathrow, we were able to get a flight to Schiphol,
Amsterdan without too much trouble. But... Heathrow is not a single terminal
airport. To get the flight to Amsterdam, we had to move to another terminal at
another side of the airport. We were hauled into a bus that drove us along
various roads, including some highways. I estimate between five and ten
kilometers. It was dark I did not see very much. Point is we never went through
customs. The bus got us from one international area to another. The bus drove
through British territory, but we never left the bus until we were loaded off
at the terminal that got us on the flight to Amsterdam.  Technically we were
never in the UK.


Cheers, Michiel

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