Unfriendly skies - Part 1 of 2...
Sriram had to be back home by 2PM on Friday at any cost. He had been planning for that meticulously for the past 1 week. On the day of his journey, he gets up at 3AM, gets ready and is at the airport by 4.15AM. Before he leaves for the airport he checks the weather to make sure that the flight would leave on time. He was happy to see clear skies. He gets to the airport well ahead of time and finds a long queue waiting at the Lufthansa counter for check-in. Sriram being a frequent traveler, looks around and finds a self check-in kiosk waiting for someone to use it. He gets out of the line, strolls to it and checks in. He then proceeds to a the baggage drop of line where he is the first in the line, drops his bags off and proceeds towards security feeling elated that he was able to get past about 30 people who had been waiting in the line for the past 30 minutes atleast. He was not aware that this 30 minutes wait would have been nothing when compared to the one awaiting him just a few hours ahead.
He boards the 6AM flight as per schedule and settles in dreaming about his trip back and the feeling of getting back home. The captains crisp voice over the PA system announces that the flight cannot take off before 7AM because of air traffic control regulations. A small knot in his stomach. He begins to calculate the time available for him to make the connection at Frankfurt and realized that it would be close call. But there was nothing he could do. He has to run to the other gate as soon as he gets out of this flight. He started praying that there should not be any more delays. He glances out his window to see a bright orange sky to the east and was glad that atleast the weather is in his favor today.
To Sriram's relief, the Captain keeps his word and takes off at exactly 2 minutes past 7. He has about 2.5 hours of flight to endure and was hoping that it should be uneventful. The first 2 hours went fine and everything seems to have fallen back into place as usual. He will still have about 45 minutes to catch the connecting flight and he should be able to make it easily. About 30 minutes prior to landing, the captains voice is back again informing the passengers that there was a heavy snowfall at the Frankfurt airport and so the landing flights are given time slots to land. So they have to be in a holding pattern for a unknown time until they receive further instructions from the ATC(Air Traffic Control). Sriram could sense that it was not going to be as smooth a trip as he had imagined. But again there was nothing he could do but pray that the connecting flight waits for him and a few other passengers who are scheduled to be on that flight.
After about 30 minutes of holding, the captain announces that they are cleared to go out of holding pattern but not cleared to land yet. So they have to wait for some more instructions from ATC. Sriram has already lost 30 minutes and his hopes were dimnishing slowly as every minute passed. His only hope was that the connecting flight is delayed due to severe weather conditions. After about 15 minutes, the captain is back online instructing the crew to prepare for landing. A sigh of relief could be seen on all the passengers including Sriram. The next 20 minutes were a little tense as the captain was trying to land this huge 30,000 ton aircraft on a snow drenched runway. There was a huge applause from the cabin when the aircraft came to a complete stop at the end of the runway. Sriram was in no mood for that. His only thought was on the time left for him to catch the connecting flight. Its already past the departure time of his connecting flight to SFO.
To his dismay, the aircraft proceeds to a open stretch of tarmac, covered with snow, with no gates and stops. A step ladder is pulled to the aircraft and the passengers were asked to deplane and proceed to a bus that would take them to the terminal. The little hopes he had of making the connecting flight disappeared altogether. He resigned to the fact that he was not going to make it to the SFO flight. The bus ride was about 20 mins to the terminal. He gets out of the bus walks to the departure display board and tries to find his flight. He is not able to see any flight going to SFO listed on the board. He then walks up to a counter and the rep confirms that his flight has already left and he has to be booked in another flight. For the first time he realized that he cannot make it back home by 2PM Friday afternoon at any cost.
To be continued.......
He boards the 6AM flight as per schedule and settles in dreaming about his trip back and the feeling of getting back home. The captains crisp voice over the PA system announces that the flight cannot take off before 7AM because of air traffic control regulations. A small knot in his stomach. He begins to calculate the time available for him to make the connection at Frankfurt and realized that it would be close call. But there was nothing he could do. He has to run to the other gate as soon as he gets out of this flight. He started praying that there should not be any more delays. He glances out his window to see a bright orange sky to the east and was glad that atleast the weather is in his favor today.
To Sriram's relief, the Captain keeps his word and takes off at exactly 2 minutes past 7. He has about 2.5 hours of flight to endure and was hoping that it should be uneventful. The first 2 hours went fine and everything seems to have fallen back into place as usual. He will still have about 45 minutes to catch the connecting flight and he should be able to make it easily. About 30 minutes prior to landing, the captains voice is back again informing the passengers that there was a heavy snowfall at the Frankfurt airport and so the landing flights are given time slots to land. So they have to be in a holding pattern for a unknown time until they receive further instructions from the ATC(Air Traffic Control). Sriram could sense that it was not going to be as smooth a trip as he had imagined. But again there was nothing he could do but pray that the connecting flight waits for him and a few other passengers who are scheduled to be on that flight.
After about 30 minutes of holding, the captain announces that they are cleared to go out of holding pattern but not cleared to land yet. So they have to wait for some more instructions from ATC. Sriram has already lost 30 minutes and his hopes were dimnishing slowly as every minute passed. His only hope was that the connecting flight is delayed due to severe weather conditions. After about 15 minutes, the captain is back online instructing the crew to prepare for landing. A sigh of relief could be seen on all the passengers including Sriram. The next 20 minutes were a little tense as the captain was trying to land this huge 30,000 ton aircraft on a snow drenched runway. There was a huge applause from the cabin when the aircraft came to a complete stop at the end of the runway. Sriram was in no mood for that. His only thought was on the time left for him to catch the connecting flight. Its already past the departure time of his connecting flight to SFO.
To his dismay, the aircraft proceeds to a open stretch of tarmac, covered with snow, with no gates and stops. A step ladder is pulled to the aircraft and the passengers were asked to deplane and proceed to a bus that would take them to the terminal. The little hopes he had of making the connecting flight disappeared altogether. He resigned to the fact that he was not going to make it to the SFO flight. The bus ride was about 20 mins to the terminal. He gets out of the bus walks to the departure display board and tries to find his flight. He is not able to see any flight going to SFO listed on the board. He then walks up to a counter and the rep confirms that his flight has already left and he has to be booked in another flight. For the first time he realized that he cannot make it back home by 2PM Friday afternoon at any cost.
To be continued.......
posted by Siva Balan @ Friday, March 10, 2006
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