From the Jaws of Death . . . .
At the Pearly gates!!!!
In hindsight, I must say, that
trip to Hyderabad in November over two decades ago was Jinxed from the start.
It was a last minute one, it had to be planned on the sly, been postponed once
and meeting times rescheduled twice over.
Honestly, an interview call from
the top management of Oracle in 1990’s was a dream chance - a great career
opportunity and I had to make sure that my current employer (Nexus – erstwhile
Aurelec) did not catch wind of it. It was normal for my office team to stop by
at home to help parents for my wedding preparations (which was around the
corner). I had to ensure none knew of the trip and so had to work it on the sly.
With travel banned at home with the wedding a few days away, the story was a
very close high ranking IAS official, a family friend, was at an ICU at
Pondicherry and hence the last minute travel.
There were no direct flights from
Coimbatore to Hyderabad and so had to get to Chennai which meant an overnight
stay to get on to IC 440 leaving Chennai (then Madras) to Hyderabad by 7:00 AM.
I reached Chennai (my cousin Uma’s place) the previous night by the Kovai
express.
It was an eventful day for all
the wrong reasons. The morning alarm did not go off so woke up late (5 AM) only
to hurry with my morning chores and had to get on an Auto latest in the next 15
minutes. Dressing up I realized I had packed the wrong blazer and tie but had
no choice. The Auto stand near my cousin’s place was empty and my brother in
law had to drop me off at the closest Auto stand at Adayar. I was running very
late and reaching the airport found the gates almost closing. Had to use the
name of an airline senior manager (our family friend) to squeeze through past
security and finally boarded the aircraft. Mine was a window seat right at the
rear and once in, the toll of the previous day’s travel, the chaos of the
morning sloshed me out and I was fast asleep after we were airborne.
In a way, the sound sleep was a blessing.
Little did I realize that we had reached Hyderabad airspace in time, lined up
for a landing, was turned down due to low visibility and were circling after a
‘Missed Approach’. Little did I realize that the flaps deployed for landing
would not retract, slowing the plane down, forcing it to cruise at low altitude,
burning up twice the amount of fuel. Little did I know that the captain decided
to turn back to Chennai and we were on course back to where we took off from.
A nudge by a passenger behind woke me. There
were hushed yet panicked discussions between a few set of passengers and a
tensed steward passing by had very little info as well though she told us that
‘We are low on fuel and may need to make an Emergency landing’.
I had been a student pilot and a student of
Aero modelling at school / college and hence had a grip on the basics of
flight. I immediately knew, this was a serious situation. Glancing out of the
window, I could see the low altitude being maintained, the engines almost on a
low hum (almost on vapor) and paddy fields as far as the eye could see. I
instantaneously knew this was more of a ‘Forced’ landing (rather than an
emergency landing). My pilot training and avionic knowledge was enough to tell
me that the fear of an explosion on impact was negligible for the almost empty
fuel tanks, but the thought of a disintegration on impact and broken bones by
the dozens if we survived was scary.
The call for landing did come by and we
were all tucked in our seats, heads down, curled in a foetal position bracing
for that dreaded impact. The few seconds seemed like eternity, as the pilot skillfully
glided the huge aircraft on it last drop of fuel and its last bit of glide capability
before settling it down on the slush of the paddy field which served as a good
foam landing platform. The impact could be felt under the feet and the plane
kept skidding for quite a distance before the slush and clay sand brought the
massive airliner to a stop - nose down close to the Naydupetta/Sulurpeta
villages on the NH5 (Chennai to Kolkata highway) .
There was awe, anxiety and fear all over as
the emergency chutes were immediately deployed. Those in front and middle could
easily slide down the chute as the nose down only helped the cause, while those
behind, like me, had a 5 foot drop at the end of the chutes as the tail was up.
Yet the younger and fitter ones like me did take the almost empty rear chutes
and though we landed with a thud, the slush softened our fall – just like how
it had done to the airliner. I must have looked like a scarecrow – dressed in a
suit, but covered in slush and mud – in the middle of a paddy field.
Things then happened in double
quick time. The villagers gathered around in numbers and started helping the
old and the weak, brought in water and even some fruits. The airhostess was
thoughtful enough to pass out water and whatever rations were left on the
plane. A couple of film world celebrities added to the rush of villagers, who
were very helpful. A couple of buses reached us from Tirupathi and we were
whisked away to the airline office and were put on cabs / buses back to
Chennai. Reaching Chennai around 5 PM took the overnight Nilgiri express to get
back to Coimbatore the next morning as though it was a routine day trip. None
at home even had the semblance of panic – for they could not relate to the
incident on the news headlines to me ;-). In fact, I kept it away for from them
for quite a few months, before revealing it to my wife.
Looking back, there seems to be a
lot of positives that this incident has had on me and my persona. Strangely,
I've not really had any trauma since the crash. I've thought of alternative
scenarios once in a while: like the fuel tanks not being empty and an explosion
ripping us apart, or a high tension cable snagging our descent electrocuting
everything or if it had not been the wet, soggy, slushy clay soil of the
fields, the plane would have disintegrated throwing us all over. Yet it was not
something that I wake up with cold sweats or something I shudder when I discuss
it today. Difficult or dangerous situations no longer seem to trigger panic nor
does fear of death even seem to bother me. Extreme situations in subsequent
flights - like heavy “Porpoising” due to turbulence or loss in cabin pressure
when airbags are deployed do not even fluster me. Emotions are completely under
control during dangerous and tricky situations possibly due to this near death
experience, for having been to the point of no return, my mind seems to accept and
live with danger.
