Mumbai, Dec 16: Last night, a passenger called us to narrate the 20-hour ordeal he had to face while flying an Air India flight from Delhi to Mumbai. He is a senior executive with a large conglomerate who did not wish to be named. The following is his first-person account:
Early Morning Departure From Gurgaon
“Sunday morning, left home in Gurgaon at 1:00 am for my Air India flight AI 887 to Mumbai at 3:20 am. There was fog on the highway but not dense enough to raise an alarm, and I reached IGI Airport at 1:35 am. Boarding was smooth and I was comfortably seated inside the aircraft by 2:40 am. Soon enough, I dozed off, trying to catch some precious sleep with a full day at work ahead of me!"
Dense Fog Grounds Flight
“After a while, I looked outside, having been woken up by the captain’s voice announcing that we couldn’t take off due to almost zero visibility on account of the dense fog that had engulfed the city by then. At 4:30 am, they asked all passengers to disembark, carrying our respective cabin luggage.”
Repeated Security Checks And Delays Begin
“Not a single flight had taken off from Delhi so far due to the fog situation, they said. We had to go through the security check once again after disembarking and then we were led to the same departure gate. Then the take-off time kept shifting from 6:30 am to 7:30 am to 9:00 am. The airline staff were very kind and arranged for packed noodles, chhole chawal, fruit juice and water for the passengers.”
Frustration Peaks As ETD Shifts Again
“But then it turned into bedlam when the next update mentioned the ETD as 11:00 am. The passengers went berserk and kept taking out their frustration and anger over the inordinate delay on the poor staff.”
Visibility Improves, Anger Grows
“By now, the fog had cleared considerably and visibility had improved significantly. ‘What are we waiting for then? Where are your seniors?’ the passengers were shouting at the top of their voices, with some choicest expletives thrown in!”
Crew Unavailability Revealed
“‘Sir, we don’t have any crew to operate the flight,’ came a sheepish response from one of the ground staff.”
Flight Cancellation Sparks Chaos
“Amidst all the chaos and shouting, another half an hour passed, and yet there was no sign of any senior official of the airline; it was still the two ground staff who kept suffering all the abuses hurled at them with commendable patience! Then, a smart passenger checking the airline website alerted the rest of the travellers that the flight had been cancelled!”
Social Media Amplifies Passenger Anger
“More chaos, more expletives, now with a higher decibel level! ‘You are making fools of all of us, you blood-sucking ******,’ some people had now started live-streaming the chaos on social media through their smartphones.”
Flight Revived With New Departure Time
“At around 12:30 pm, one of the ground staff took the mic to announce that the same flight would operate and would take off at 2:30 pm from the same gate (Gate 32).”
Temporary Calm At The Gate
“In complete contrast to the aggressive and agitated atmosphere just moments ago, the announcement was greeted with much applause and whistles by the passengers.”
Passengers Return, Delays Resume
“Now relaxed with this assurance, most of the passengers dispersed.”
“By 2:00 pm, the departure gate was again crowded, with all the passengers now eager to board. However, there was no sign of any crew or any boarding activity for the next 45 minutes! The shouting and abuses returned with far bigger fury this time, and yet the two airline staff managing the counter at the gate continued to keep their calm!”
Aircraft Change And Data Loss Add To Confusion
“Then it transpired that a different aircraft would now fly to Mumbai instead of the earlier plane, so it would take time to transfer the luggage from one to the other. And then came the next update: the airline had lost all passenger data as the original flight had been cancelled, so all that data had to be manually fed into the computer before the new boarding passes could be issued!”
New Boarding Passes Issued
“After another hour of more chaos and confusion, the passengers started receiving the new boarding passes on their registered emails and WhatsApp!”
“And yet, no sign of the crew!”
Crew Arrives After 14 Hours
“At 3:30 pm, an airline staff member came to the gate with physical boarding passes for the passengers. As each passenger was called out to be handed over the boarding passes, two pilots and the cabin crew also turned up and headed to the aircraft.”
Boarding Completed, Flight Still Grounded
“Boarding started at 4:15 pm and I was seated at 4:30 pm. Completely exhausted by the ordeal of the past 14 hours, I immediately dozed off, before being woken up by the noise of shouting passengers. It was 5:30 pm and I realised we were still at the parking bay!! Apparently, a couple of passengers were yet to turn up.”
Fog Returns As Passengers Protest
“I looked outside; the fog was setting in again. It seemed visibility would get worse in a few minutes. It had been almost an hour since we boarded.”
“Some of the passengers had now gotten up from their seats and were shouting at the crew, demanding that the plane fly without the remaining passengers. And then, the two missing passengers turned up and entered the plane.”
Finally Airborne After Nearly 15 Hours
“We finally took off from Delhi a few minutes past 6:00 pm and landed in Mumbai at 7:40 pm.”
Journey Ends After 20 Hours
“I reached my home in Bandra West at exactly 9:00 pm on Monday—nearly 20 hours since I drove out from home in Gurgaon!”
Passenger Questions Airline Preparedness
“As I dragged my exhausted body to bed after a nice warm shower, I kept wondering what happened!”
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“Was it the winter fog of Delhi, which could not have been helped, or was it the lack of anticipatory preparation on the part of the airline? Was it the lack of adequate night-vision technology in these aircraft, or the near-complete absence of communication from the airline? Was there any single factor that made the entire experience so painful, or a combination of all these factors that made it so emotionally and physically draining?”
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