To BA or not to BA...

This morning, a United Airways non-stop flight from Washington to Beijing (UA 897) had to make an emergency landing at Dulles as soon after take-off, one of the four engines was found to have failed. Fortunately, for the passengers, the pilot was rational enough to not try and make the journey, even though technically the aircraft is apparently capable of doing so with three engines as well.

Incidents like these do give a bit of jolt to the notion that air travel is the safest form of travel (even though apparently there are statistics to back this claim). What is worse is that apparently events of engine failure are not very uncommon, only that often the common public is not aware of it.

One such incident which showed the complete callousness of the airline industry was the British Airways flight from Los Angeles to London in early 2005. The flight lost one of its four engines soon after take off, but was forced to continue on its journey to London by the BA's control center in London.

The flight had to travel at a lower altitude of 29,000 feet instead of the regular 36,000 feet resulting in lower engine efficiency, unfavourable tailwinds and extra drag. As a result of all this the plane consumed much more fuel that is normal. As a result the aircraft was not left with enough fuel to go all the way to London and had to make an emergency landing at Manchester.

After the incident, the BA spokesman stated that the decision to continue with the flight was made keeping in mind the best interests of the passengers. I am wondering what these best interests would be!! Maybe it would be the adventure of flying on 3 engines instead of four for a transcontinental flight. Or maybe, it was the thrilling prospect of running out of fuel over the Atlantic. Little did the passengers know that they paid not just for the transatlantic flight ticket but also signed up for one of the most thrilling rides of their lives.

This callousness is shocking to say the least. The passengers were lucky that despite the fuel shortage they were able to make it to Manchester. Imagine a situation if they ran out of fuel sometime during the 5,000 mile Atlantic crossing!!!

The real reason for BA's decision was most likely the fact that only three days ago a new European regulation came into force which required airlines to pay compensation to passengers for delays beyond 5 hours. BA was simply trying to save this money. Its a different matter that it nearly jeopardised passenger safety and still ended up with more than a 5 hour delay!!

By the way, in case you are wondering why I am suddenly so concerned about this, well.. I am about to board a flight from San Fransisco to London and then London to Mumbai. And the carrier I am flying with is none other than BA.

God speed..

Jet-tisonned again.. almost..

This is the second fiasco I have had with Jet Airways in the last 15 or so days and the third with airlines in general in the last 4 weeks.

Background - I was taking a 21:45 hours flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad on May 8th, 2007. The idea was to avoid taking the early morning flight at 5:30 hours and thereby avoid killing oneself just a wee-bit.

Situation - Reached the airport well in time. Terribly tired and sleepy. Among the first few to board the aircraft and take my seat. Wanted to sleep as mucha s I could on the plane.

Complication - The aircraft taxied to the runway. Spent a few minutes waiting for the queue to clear up in front of us. Just as we came to our turn for take-off, the pilot figured out there was some technical snag and in his wisdom decided that we needed to go back to the parking bay where they could figure out the problem.

All this while I was 75% asleep and as only vaguely aware of the pilot making the announcement that we were going back to the parking bay. Guess somewhere in this process I fell off to sleep for a while and did not have a sense of the time and activities around me.

Woke up around 22:30 and realised that we were still sitting in the parking bay. Saw a few passengers and ground staff milling around the entrance of the aircraft. Suddenly realised that we should have been landing in Ahmedabad around this time. Instead I was sitting inside the aircraft, on the tarmac at Bombay airport.

Instinct was to get up and raise a bit of a ruckus to figure out what the problem was, but I was feeling far too lazy and sleepy to do so. Hence just sat around with my eyes half open and listened to the conversations happening around me.

After another few minutes the delay started to get my goat. My mis-fortune could not get so much the better of myself!!! So I got up and started enquiring what the issue was and whether or not we would be leaving for Ahmedabad anytime soon.

The flight steward had no clue. All he could say was - "Sir, the Captain is looking into the matter and is trying his best."

Me - "Can you please ask him to make an announcement and give us some clarity on what is happening and what we can expect?"

Steward - "Sir, I have told him. He is trying his best Sir."

Me - "I am sure he is trying his best. I am only asking for some clarity on the situation. How much more delay can we expect? Should I go home and sleep or hang around here?"

Steward - "Sir, the delay is unavoidable considering your safety and security. The Captain is trying his best. I do not want to distrub him."

Huge glare from me...

Steward - "Sir, I will tell the Captain again."

Five minutes later, there is still no clarity and no movement.

Me - "Hello..."

Steward - "Sir, the Captain is looking into the matter and is trying his best."

Another huge glare from me...

Steward - "Sir, I have told him."

Me - "So??"

Steward - "Sir.. Captain says we are waiting for some paperwork and we should be ready to leave in 5 mins."

A bit mollified, I go and sit on my seat.

In between all this drama, one of the passengers has decided to get off the plane and go home. As a result, the ground staff now wants each passenger to identify his/her hand baggage. Lots of grunts and murmurings as the pained junta does not want to be pained any more. Some raise their voice and so on. The ground staff takes the position that it is DGCA rules and they cannot avoid it. So like good Indians, we all resign to our fate and allow the ground staff to do their bit.

Soon enough the Captain makes an announcement that we are ready to leave. All of us breathe a sigh of relief and buckle up.

Resolution: We take off finally and land at Ahmedabad shortly after midnight. So much for taking the night flight and not missing out on sleep!!

If this was an isolated incident, maybe I can wouldn't have been worried as much. But here I see a design, quite sinister and quite fearful. Here's what it is -

• First time this delay business happened with Indian Airlines - I was still inside the terminal building at Ahmedabad.
• Second time the technical snag delay happened, this time on Jet at Bangalore, I had boarded the bus to go to the flight.
• Third time it happened (this episode), I was on the plane, ready for take off...
• Next time.. on the plane, in mid-air and nowhere to go....

Keshav is unwell

Last 3-4 days the poor kid has not been very well. He has been very restless, is not sleeping soundly and is also not taking his feed properly. On top of that, once a day he has been puking out the feed as well.

As a result he himself has become a bit cranky and miserable. Keeps making grunting noises every few minutes and is crying a lot more than before.

Doc says its probably a bit of a gastric problem and shall go away in a few days. Till it does, its rather miserable to see such a small kid go through so much discomfort.