Landed Safely...

Originally published on 6th June 2010 on https://sushantjunnarkarsblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/landed-safely.html

Numerous flights till date had never evoked any thoughts in mind about the size of the run-way, distance from the coast line, table-top run way, run-way on a reclaimed land, turbulence and air-pockets (not even the extremely turbulent Bangalore-Coimbatore ATR about an year ago) etc. etc. That is, till the time I decided to fly to Mangalore within 2 weeks of the tragedy that claimed about 160 lives. Earlier flights to Mangalore would not and actually, have not warranted any thoughts, least of all penning my thoughts… The hypotheses about the crash vary from folklore about the inauspicious start to the new terminal (it was incidentally opened less than a week back), to the more scientific- pilot error and the overshooting of the runway, to fatalistic hypothesis- when Death comes calling.... 

The runway has been in use for quite sometime and (perhaps precariously?) perched on a hillock in a village called Bajpe. Many flights have landed safely and would continue to land safely (Amen!). The ill-fated flight clearly deviated from the landing course plunging down the ravine below. The path that the wreckage took is visible clearly from a long distance. Among the green forest cover is a clear path, as if the speeding aircraft devoured anything that tried to stop it in its way before it decided to stop… and explode in flames. There is still some sign of activity, in sense that you can see some vehicles and lights. The area has been cordoned off and investigations still on. 

There are numerous anecdotes about how the villagers (the name of village, lest it be forgotten, is Kenjar) were the first ones to reach the site. Eye-witness accounts (or people who have heard from the eye-witnesses) mention about how passengers could be heard screaming before the flames engulfed the wreckage. There are ghastly stories about the bodies charred beyond recognition. Some bizarre accounts of ambulances scrambling to take bodies to respective hospitals to one of the journalist being roughed up as he was reportedly shouting at the top of his voice about the inadequacy of local administration efforts (may be an effort at sensational journalism). 

So there I was on the way to Mangalore on an official visit…with strict instructions from the family to SMS/call as soon as I landed (Note: WhatsApp was not as widely used or even known as it is today). The airhostess closed her eyes for a moment and (perhaps) added a prayer when the plane finally taxied for the take-off (ATRs for those of us who recollect had two seats for air-hostesses with the front one facing towards the passengers). When the landing was announced, all necks (whether on the window or the aisle) were stretching to try to have a bird’s eye-view of the crash site. The direction of the landing had changed (incidentally it had been changed even for the first flight that landed hours after the crash). While earlier the flights used to approach the runway directly, now the flights go up to the Mangalore port over the coast-line and then turnaround and approach the landing. While this does not make the runway any longer, the aircraft would overshoot on the plains and not drop in the valley (if God forbid) another similar situation arose. So there we landed from the other side and a normal landing at that. The relief on some of the faces was palpable, but one difference that was noticeable was that there was no sound of seat-belts clicking open till the “plane has come to a complete halt and seat-belt sign switched off”. No sound of cell phones being switched on till the time the doors of the ATR were opened! 

I switched on my cell phone to adhere to the family’s instructions and the moment the cell got a whiff of signal from the cell tower, the phone rang. I would assume that they had not factored in the 30 min delay (caused on the tarmac at Bangalore airport) and would have been calling at least for sometime (hope they were not thinking of switching on the News…). To their relief I told them…Landed Safely…..