MUMBAI: After a star-studded IIFA weekend at Yorkshire, a trip back home on Air India’s AI120 flight (London-Delhi-Mumbai) from Heathrow turned out to be a nightmare. Not only was the take-off delayed by over an hour due to “signal problems”, the plane carrying 444 passengers including stars like Kangana Ranaut, Sunidhi Chauhan, Pahlaj Nihalani,
Sohail Khan and Shiamak Davar turned out to be a rickety one.
Around 12.20 am while the plane was mid-air, a strong burning smell spread through the plane. The crew were then summoned to the cockpit. The passengers were told it was a technical problem which will be fixed soon. However, the smell persisted.
The plane thankfully landed at Delhi. However, soon after it took off for Mumbai, a strange noise emanated from the engine outside. A German passenger, who claimed to have seen smoke rising from the wings, informed the crew. Pilot Captain Sundaram announced that he will be going in for an emergency landing.
The plane was then taken back to Delhi airport. This return journey was perhaps one of the worst experiences. Actor Kangana Ranaut had another horror story to recount. She said, "It is the worst airline experience I've ever had. Even while flying to London three days ago, this very airline made me wait for six hours before they put me on another private airline."
Adding to the panic was one of the air-hostesses who casually informed us: "Oh! This is a very old plane leased from Korea. They should have returned it now. Don't know why haven't yet." The passengers only heaved a sigh of relief when we landed at Delhi airport. But there was one question begging to be answered.
Why wasn't the engine given a thorough once-over at Delhi airport when the fact that it had a problem was clear from the start. Captain Sundaram insisted that there was nothing wrong with the plane earlier.
Nevertheless, our nightmare was yet to end. There was only one officer, Atul Dyal, to attend to 444 passengers at Delhi Airport. To every question, Dayal had only one answer: "You will be put up in a hotel until further notice.
" Perhaps the fear of getting bad press drove the airline personnel to get me a seat on another private airplane. I shuddered to think of those passengers who were still waiting at Delhi airport with no one bothering to attend to them.
Shiamak Davar's 85 year old mother, summed it all up with, "The journey seemed endless. I was very scared."
