Nihat Kahveci – Turkish Domestic Flights Are Not for Beginners

Besiktas and Milli Takim legend Nihat Kahveci recalled boarding a domestic flight when a passenger tapped him on the shoulder looking genuinely worried.

“Abi, bu uçak nereye gidiyor?”
(Brother, where’s this plane going?)

Nihat replies: “Antalya.”

The passenger looks even more confused: “E ama üstünde Mersin yazıyor?” (But why does it say Mersin on it?)

The man had apparently mistaken airline branding or signage for the actual flight destination.

Nihat tells the story like someone who has spent years travelling and slowly realised airports produce a special kind of panic in otherwise perfectly functional adults.

It’s a tiny moment, but exactly the kind of observational humour that made his interview memorable: football stories mixed with the bizarre little interactions Turkish people somehow turn into comedy sketches without trying.