A wobbly night; just enough to bring the worst fears out of you.

Courtesy : Youtube.com

The sky was just wrapping up its sheet for the cold night ahead and with the moon, shining lazily over it. The stars had taken its covers already and clouds had dozed off, not moving its ass even by an inch.

Travelling straight down to the earth, it was a divergent scene over and all. Still narrowing down, the coordinate 18.5791° N & 73.9087° E had a really engaged mood. People were busy jotting in and out trying hard not to miss their flight. Endless car and taxi were lining one behind the other, trying to enter and exit the airport, something that is a routine scene there. The only place in the region that was devoid of traffic was the air side, which by time would be crowded too.

The ground staffs of all the airline were working their best to get each aircraft in air, on time. PNQ (IATA code for PUNE Lohegaon airport) experienced mad rush of air traffic right from dusk till midnight. Being a defense airport, rightly under the control of the Indian Air Force, it has an 8329 ft. long primary runway with night landing facility and 7 parking bays, capable of handling single aisle civilian aircraft. Hence during peak hours, getting a parking spot is really tough and aircraft were made to wait on the taxiway.

I was little relaxed as I would not be stuck in the mad rush of traffic at the airport since my flight was scheduled late into the night. My flight SG529 to MAA was to depart around 2315 hours, operated by SpiceJet, one of India’s leading low cost carriers. It was one of the last flight to MAA, though there were other departures scheduled well beyond its time from the airport and every flight in this time period mostly ran full. Credits to the inception of LCC’s in India, making travel affordable to anyone.

Diwali, the festival of lights and happiness has just wrapped up, but the festive mood amidst the local had not settled yet. The air was filled with joy, excitement and happiness all the way to the airport. Fire crackers were still found ornamenting the sky. The rich culture of India, family gathering during celebrations and the bonding that they shared with one another was very well felt in every corner of the city. I wished I just had stayed a few more days there, getting myself involved with the locals and attaining a sense of completeness; deep within me.

So as I said before, since most flights departed out of the airport post 2100 hours, I had a long queue ahead of me almost everywhere inside the airport, though luckily not outside. Be it the baggage screening or the airlines counter or the security hold, everywhere it was packed with people. Crossing each one was a triumph of its own and the airport was handling passengers beyond its capacity. Even the waiting lounge close to the gates were full, making it difficult to find a space. Time rolled out and I was finally boarded. As it was a small airport, we did not have the trouble of waiting for the shuttle to transport us to the aircraft. We could just walk past series of aircraft standing in the tarmac, to board ours..

Seated comfortably beside the window, the aircraft was slowly filling up. A kid of 10 years old sat beside me shortly, accompanied by his father. The plane was full rather fast and pushed back well ahead of its time. The cabin crew had their safety demonstration done and the fight was airborne very soon.

As it was a red eye flight, the chances of finding people moving around the aircraft was less. But my misconception was broken by an interestingly large crowd of passengers. A whole lot of South Indians, all of a single group had come on a pilgrimage trip and were returning home that night. The whole aircraft was filled with their chit chats and it gave everyone such a lively feel to be seated there, except for the flight crew, who were having a really bad time controlling the crowd. The sense of exasperation was clearly found on each flight steward’s face.

The weather was pretty good as we departed out of PNQ. However 100 nautical miles from MAA, the captain announced of bad weather and requested the passengers to stay seated with their seat belts around. Slowly the aircraft descended into MAA airspace and as announced it was a rough patch of weather outside our windows. Sparse lightning was visible and the clouds were thick, ready to shower over the city anytime.

Getting past those clouds seemed difficult but the cockpit crew was trained to handle such situation and they justified their actions. Though the aircraft was under their control, frequent violent turbulence was felt. The whole scene within the aircraft was entirely different to what it was sometime back. A dead pitch silence was felt across the aisle and everyone had a tight grip over the hand rest.

As we were going through a roller coaster ride, a mighty blow hit us all ultimately. The aircraft, which was flying steadily till then suddenly lost altitude. We could literally sense the contents of the stomach pitching up the food pipe and also a sudden loss of pressure within the cabin blowing the air out of our ears. A sudden explosion of fear burst out of everyone as if some kind of deadly spell had hit us all. Kids and women started screaming out of fear. Holy mantras started flowing out of every direction. Prayers were heard loud, pleading god not to end their life today. I believed the same amount of pressure was felt at the cockpit too. However the pilots were efficiently skilled that they brought the situation under control within seconds.

The flight had regained its stability and was descending at a slow and normal pace. Cabin crew pitched in to comfort fear stuck passengers who almost had a small panic attack. Later the captain spoke out and apologized for the series of mishap due to dirty weather outside and assured that he shall get everyone home safely. I was taken deeply by his gratitude and envied him, thinking how patiently he had handled the situation though undergoing a ton of pressure and taking decisions swiftly.

Few thousand feet’s above the ground the captain announced of the landing clearance. As I looked out through the window, the city of Chennai was sparkling beautifully and looked even fresher after the rain thus lifting my spirits higher. The aircraft made a city side entry and touched down smoothly on runway 07 very soon. Taxiing lazily around the airport, the aircraft finally came to a halt. The aerobridge was docked in and we were informed of the baggage belt.

The long line of people deplaning took a dead pace initially. Everyone were scrambling here and there looking out for their bags in the overhead compartment. The cockpit door opened suddenly and the captain was out. He went straight to one of the flight steward to have a word. Everyone who were moving out noticed the presence of captain and they stopped all of a sudden. With such happy eyes, a loud round of applause suddenly filled the air as everyone were cheering him, who had skillfully brought the aircraft on ground amidst all the chaos. The Captain was so humble in thanking everyone back that he stood there till the last passenger de-boarded.

Very soon at the terminal, people were stuffing their bags on to the cart and finding their way out. Slowly as everyone started regrouping with their loved ones outside the airport, no one seemed to remember of the shaky incident that just unfolded minutes back in the air. Everyone just moved ahead feeling relieved to be back home, but back in the aircraft the crew had a flight ahead of them still not knowing what is waiting for them up in the air. Their life may look glamorous but the hardship they face is something that we miss to notice and appreciate. Envying their lifestyle, I just moved out trying to find the vehicle that has come to pick me up taking me back into my stereotypical life at Chennai.