Aapka Sahara !!

On a cold winter's morning ..

It all happened one fine Sunday morning in mid-december, when the cold wave starts to sweep over Delhi. And there we were, me and a friend, at the IG airport at 6 am, ready to take off for a quick business trip to Chennai and back the same day. We were quite glad that we had gotten the lowest priced seats in the Sahara flight. Little did we know, what all surprises did Sahara have in store for us.

The take off from Delhi was on time and quite smooth, which was ok considering the fact that the typical winter fog had not set in yet. During the flight, there were some nice refreshments and we even got a quick hours nap to catch up on our missed early morning sleep. Around 10 or so, the captain announced that we were about to land in Chennai.

We looked out of the window – the weather was very cloudy and there were forecasts of rains that day, but no major turbulence or the kind. Cause for concern, yes – but nothing serious as flights often encounter such situations. As we started our descent, there were some slight disturbances and we felt some bumps here and there, but continued on our course for landing nevertheless.


The runaway that disappeared !

Just as we sighted land down below, as the clouds cleared, the wings suddenly folded back and there was an immediate jolt. To our surprise, we found that the plane was rising now. Hmmm – weren’t we supposed to land here? Perhaps, there was some clearance problem from the ATC at Chennai airport or some other stuff. Ok, lets wait and try again. So we waited for another 20 minutes, but the plane had no plans of descending any more. Just then, our pilots voice came over the speakers – “Sorry to inform you, but we were not able to land in Chennai as we could not sight the runway during our descent”, and proceeded to inform us that the flight was going to Bangalore instead.

All of us cursed the bad weather in Chennai and hoped that the flight would return from Bangalore later. And we proceeded on course for Bangalore. There, we were witness to a spectacular display of flight instability as even the most seasoned of flyers got a bit concerned. We landed with a marvelous skid that would have made Schumacher proud on any F1 circuit.


Is it the weather, or is it us ?

Then, as the Bangalore bound passengers alighted, the Chennai ones got concerned as to when we would be flying back. There was no response from the cabin crew or ground-engineers (who had boarded as soon after touchdown). Only thing we got was that they could not land in Chennai because of bad weather and we have to wait for another hour for skies to clear and then we can go back. Some of us switched on their mobiles to inform concerned people in Chennai who were waiting for us. They were surprised at the Sahara delay, and said that all other flights, including a Jet and IA flight, which were supposed to land at the same time, did not face any problems.


More than met the eye ...

This was indeed strange, so the weather was a bit bad but manageable back there, then what were we guys doing here. Still no response from the Sahara guys, who were showing signs of worry as there was a small but determined group of passengers who were waiting outside the pilot’s door. At that time a senior pilot walked into the cockpit to take a briefing, and we heard a few opening words from our pilot – “Really sorry, sir – but we simply could not see …” and the voice trailed off as the door shut, leaving the rest to our imaginations and various hypotheses.

After some time, the senior pilot walks out and says there was some technical snag and we would fly back to Chennai as soon as it’s fixed. Most people were satisfied and returned to their seats. But we still stuck around trying to find out the exact reason – if there was a technical snag, then how come we were able to land in Bangalore.


Let Chaos Reign !!

Then the announcement came over the speakers that all passengers bound for Chennai should alight from the plane and head to departure section for details. Puzzled by this latest development, we did the same and headed towards the departure.

In the departure section, there was even more pandemonium as angry, frustrated passengers demanded of the Sahara staff as to when will they fly back to Chennai, why our flight could not land while all others landed, and why was there so much delay and confusion over what we were supposed to do. The local Sahara manager was at his wits end trying to placate the crowd, but he was doing a very bad job of it. And since he had no idea of further plan of action of Sahara, he was giving very vague answers, which made the passengers only more irate. He kept on insisting that there was a technical snag, but refused to give any more details. The growing frustrations developed into blind rage as some passengers even tried to mishandle the Sahara staff, but were thankfully stopped by others.


Much amends to make ..

Much later, the Sahara guys announced that there would be a flight going to Chennai in the late afternoon and we could board that. As this would leave just a couple of hours for us in Chennai before we had to fly back, me and my friend demanded that we should be flown back to Delhi directly and a full refund of our fare. They meekly agreed and put us on the next flight to Delhi. And upgraded our seats to business class to cool us down.


Laut ke buddhoo ghar ko aaye .. :)

Then we headed towards the business class lounge and relaxed there until our flight in the evening. The trip back was fairly uneventful and except for a slight delay in departure, was most comfortable. When we finally landed back in Delhi after the day’s excursion courtesy Sahara, we vowed never to trust these guys again – Better to fall down than to take their ‘Sahara’.