Cannot read

As the plane prepared to land in Maputo, I was advised by a member of the cabin crew that I wasn’t permitted to read. Having been put in an emergency exit row, apparently a book was not appropriate in my hands, but needed to be stowed in the seat pocket 10 inches further away. When I was incredulous, the same inane instruction was merely repeated.

Maybe there have been incidents whereby a plane has crash landed into the sea with the person in 11A too engrossed in their book to remember to operate the emergency door, slowing down evacuation from a deathly fireball in the cabin. Or perhaps loose books have caused obstructions, much in the way of a banana peel, to people fleeing a burning cabin. Much better for all books to be in seat pockets, where they would surely remain whilst a plane nosedives to the ground.

Has anyone else encountered the seemingly pointless rule of not being able to read a book during landing?!

On the plus side, I squeezed in a sumptuous breakfast first thing at the hotel in Nampula.