Friday, 02 Oct 2009, Chennai.
It was an early morning for my sister, aunt and me. We had booked a cab to take us to the airport to board the 7:00 a.m. Jetlite flight to Coimbatore. It was a planned weekend getaway to Valparai, a lesser known hill-station in Tamil-Nadu. The cab reached promptly at 5:00 am and we covered the Mogappair to Airport drive in about 30 min. Meanwhile, Chakri (my office colleague) and his wife who were to join us for this trip, had already arrived at the airport. Being a 3-day weekend, there was a rush at all the airport counters. Baggage check-in and security check itself took an hour. I was late enough for the Jetlite counters to announce my name, but then finally made it on time. It was an exciting journey so far for my sister, aunt and Chakri's wife, this was after-all going to be their first air-borne journey, not for Chakri and me though. Little did we know that what lay ahead was much more than a flight travel, just a tad less than a nightmare.
It was a 10 min, 1 km ride on the airport bus service to 9W 2735 Jetlite, big enough to carry 65 passengers. I always prefer travelling on the smaller CRJ-200 plane rather than the larger Boeing-737s or Airbus-330s. The small planes are perfect value for money as the pilots do not manouver them high up, giving us a glimpse of the landscape all the way till we land.
As I sat on my seat, there was a jittery feeling in me. It was weirdly strong, and I haven't felt this way in quite sometime. Telling this to the stranger sitting next to me would have been the last thing to do now. Everything was fine as the plane took off. About 10 minutes into the flight, I realised the plane was flying South of Chennai, whereas Coimbatore was on the West of Chennai. The morning sun to my left confirmed that my sense of direction was intact. I was waiting for the big right scoop the pilot would take, which eventually he did not take, and we were already into 30 minutes of our 60 minute journey.
It was now that the air-hostess and the flight steward took back the tray serving water and coffee to the passengers. We all began sensing something was not right. Right at this moment, the gentleman next to me asked me to notice that the left blades of the plane was not rotating, and to my surprise, it was indeed NOT rotating. Seeing it stationary was the last thing I want to see 8000 ft up in the sky. I could see my worst fear almost comingtrue. Me and my sister gave a nervous smile to each other, atleast it was nervous at my end. The pilot now announced the failure of the left engine and that we would be heading back to Chennai airport due to this technical snag. He assured that the plane was safe to travel with just one working engine, I was not so confident though.
The plane now took a big U-Turn and was heading north towards Chennai. There were panic hushes in the plane, the hostess and the steward did a good job of keeping the fake smile on, and confirmed this was not normal at the Jetlite service. It was a little relief when the plane flew across the Bay of Bengal, atleast now there's a possibility of landing on water. The pilot took us on a rollercoaster ride as he glided and swayed the plane all over the Bay of Bengal. At one point, the water felt real close, but we must have been atleast a couple of thousand feet in the air. Finally the runway was in our vicinity, I noticed the stranger next to me was chanting some mantras with his eyes closed. It was heavy on him mentally after his last night's flight at Malaysia had a problem with it's landing gear and the plane was forced to glide for an hour on the night sky, now it was Jetlite tormenting him. As the plane hit the ground with a thud, it was a thud of relieval and heavy breathing all over. Just as the plane came to a halt, we heard a voice arguing with the hostess asking her to let him leave the plane, the hostess politely quoting the rules and requested him to remain seated until further instructions. It was none other than the Home Minister P.Chidambaram, we all were surprised that the Home Minister himself was travelling in Jetlite. It was part of the Congress government's recent austerity drive to curb minister spending. Jetlite developing a technical snag with Home Minister onboard was indeed a perfect recipe for the hungry newsmen outside. (Check this article: http://www.mynews.in/News/Flight_with_Chidambaram_on_board_got_mid_air_technical_snag__N27075.html)
Jetlite management was quick to arrange an alternative flight by 10:00 am. This time, me and the guy in the next seat swapped places to negate the ill-luck. Surprisingly enough, this time there was no hint of the jittery feeling or anything of that sort in me. The flight glided through the clear Chennai skies deeper into Tamil-Nadu and as it reached Coimbatore it pierced through the rain clouds. It was the first time I was flying in rain. As we landed in Coimbatore, the air smelled of fresh rains. More than the rains, I was drenched with the thought of finally making it to Coimbatore after the harrowing experience not so long ago. My three day vacation had finally commenced.
If there was one thing I recollect saying to myself while the one-engined plane was gliding its way to Chennai, it was "Not this way, my end can't be this near!" And if there was one thing I learnt out of this trip, it's the fact that planes can fly with one engine too, and there's absolutely no reason to panic. Ignorance is NOT bliss when you're inside that plane a few thousand feet up in the air !
