Sumitra Deb Roy, TNN | Sep 6, 2011, 06.56AM IST
MUMBAI: As my flight took off from Hong Kong Airport on Sunday evening, the opening lines of the pilot were, "We hope we can fly you to Mumbai in time provided the congestion is less. Mumbai is always a busy city or rather has the busiest airport!"
The sarcasm in the pilot's tone was hard to miss. But in the end his prediction turned out to be true.The flight had left Hong Kong at around 6 pm and was in the city within the scheduled six hours, entering Mumbai's skies right at around 12 am. But no sooner did the pilot announce that it was only a matter of time before people would head home, came the Air Traffic Controller's signal that the aircraft couldn't land before 50 minutes.
A passenger, whose restless child refused to have the seat belt on (necessary due to massive turbulence), was told by a crew member the delay could be more than an hour. The kid refused the candies and drink offered and announced he wanted to get off right then.
As passengers glanced at the child with amusement, came another announcement. It was the pilot informing us the plane would hover over Mumbai for close to an hour, a delay the ATC apparently attributed to bad weather. But a few minutes later, the pilot again informed us the delay was because of logjam on the runway. A foreigner on board quipped, "Mumbai's runways are clearly jinxed" .
The air hostesses returned with drink carts but few were interested. Finally, the pilot was back with the announcement everyone was waiting to hear: "Crew be seated for landing" . Touchdown came at 1.20 am.
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