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....
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