The passengers on the light aircraft on which the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, is touring the State were not expecting such an apparition when they landed at Knock Airport just after midday yesterday.
There on the tarmac to greet Mr Kenny was his finance spokesman and fellow Mayo TD, Mr Michael Ring, heading a small welcoming party, all decked in luminous yellow vests.
"Jaysus, it's Ring in a flak-jacket!" exclaimed Senator Jim Higgins, one of the passengers and erstwhile Euro election candidate for the North West constituency.
Knock was the second stop of the day for the Fine Gael flyer, which was carrying the party leader on his whistle-stop two-day tour of the State to launch his party's election campaign.
He began in Cork, flying to Shannon to meet local election candidates for Co Clare. There, the eight-seater Fine Gael flyer took on the party's two candidates for the North West constituency, Mr Jim Higgins and Ms Madeline Taylor-Quinn, before travelling on to Mayo.
There was a certain theme to the visits to Clare, Mayo and Donegal: there was a new messiah of the west.
In speeches to the party faithful, he promised to save Shannon, build a rail corridor and bring record investment into the region with Fine Gael in power.
And while it was home territory for Mr Kenny, it was the ever-energetic Mr Ring, who is noted for his ability to attend as many as five funerals in a morning, who was the master of ceremonies during the launch at Knock.
Introducing Mr Kenny, he confidently predicted that his party leader would soon be arriving at Knock in the Government jet.
"I thought Michael was going to say he will pilot the Government jet itself," Mr Kenny quipped.
Mr Kenny, or "Inda"' as he is universally known in Mayo, was in assured form on home turf, telling the council candidates that during the campaign they would "learn more about yourselves and what people think about you than you ever thought possible. I certainly did."
Mr Kenny, no doubt, will be hoping that the Fine Gael election campaign will be a somewhat smoother ride than he experienced during his journey.
The winds were so strong that a planned stop at Sligo had to be abandoned. However, Mr Kenny , a regular passenger in small aircraft, was relaxed.