A Plane In The Neck

Our member Ramana Sista on the once-in-a-lifetime experience he chose to view through a humourous lens.

On 5th July this year, I travelled from Bangalore to Hyderabad to attend the US Visa biometrics at short notice. For overnight journeys, I prefer travelling by AC Ist Class Train, but no tickets were available for the journey on that date. So I booked an Alliance Airlines Flight departing Bangalore at 6.40 pm to reach faster. After booking, I got a message informing me of the revised time of departure at 7.25 pm. Alliance Air was an erstwhile part of Air India before the latter's divestment. Currently, it operates as a division under the Air India Asset Holdings Pvt Ltd (AIAHL). I am one of those rare travellers who love that middle seat experience and being in the front row to get out faster with cabin baggage.

I was disappointed on both counts. The entry and exit were from the rear, and the small aircraft had only four seats in each row, two on each side—neither the middle seat experience nor the faster exit. The flight was delayed by one more hour, and I reached the host's home at midnight. My friend who invited me to stay with him had gone to sleep, and his wife was awake to serve me dinner. On the 7th at 11 am, I reached US Visa Application Centre (VAC) for a biometrics appointment at 11.15 am. There wasn't much rush, and I got my turn immediately. After looking at the appointment letter, the lady at the counter said, "This appointment is only for dropbox (a facility offered by the US Consulate) and not for biometrics." I said, "I am an octogenarian and am exempt from the Consulate interview, and this is the appointment letter I got. You tell me what I should drop!" She consulted her senior and confirmed that I only need to give the passports, old and recently expired, the first page of the DS-160 application form together with two photos and nothing else, which I gave. She said that the passport would be returned within ten days with the Consulate's decision. I was out of VAC by 11.10 am. Compiling the 100-page file comprising the sponsor's declaration of financial support, appointment letter, employer's confirmation, bank statement, banker's confirmation, form I-29, I-94, IT returns, and several other documents had been a futile exercise!

Returning to the reel life in the real-life experience of travelling by Alliance Air flight--on the day of travel back to Bangalore on 8th July, they informed us that the revised departure time was now 11.45 pm instead of the scheduled 8.40 pm.

Having learned my lesson on the previous flight and still desirous of a quick exit, I opted for the last row, seat 18C and got into the aircraft at 11 pm. At the revised departure time, the pilot was bothered by a noise in the engine. It took them a while to find a new pilot and announce that there was some technical problem they were trying to resolve. We saw a couple of engineers wearing green jackets walking in and out of the cockpit. At 1 am, when there was no sign of taking off, half of the 72 passengers, with low boiling points, started shouting at the air hostesses, "You can't keep us waiting indefinitely. It is already 5 hours from the scheduled departure time, and we can't risk our lives travelling by this defective craft; we want to deboard, call the police, and so on. I felt sorry for the helpless air hostesses. Finally, The down-to-earth pilot came out and said the aircraft was not fit to fly. It was now a commercial decision -- "Please wait for the commercial announcement." After a while, they announced that a new craft had been arranged, and it was ready, standing next to the defective one.

We were asked to get into the two buses waiting. After getting in, we were puzzled when they took us back to the security check and Gate No.108. The whole process took about 45 minutes. We could have easily walked into the new craft, but it looked like they wanted time to prepare the craft for boarding and took us for a joy ride to avoid further ruckus. In all fairness, I must say that the replaced craft was brand new with a classy look. It took off soon after all boarded and covered the distance in an hour and 10 minutes. Frankly, with all the time at my disposal, my flying anxiety was at ease, and I found the funny side of it. It was an interesting study in anthropology, and I thoroughly enjoyed this 'once-in-a-lifetime drama'. I reached home at 5.30 am. Choosing a back row seat had been of no help.

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