The announcement came, ” Cabin crew disarm all slides“.
When a cabin crew disarms all slides on a plane, they deactivate the emergency slide so it won’t deploy when the doors open during disembarkation. As a passenger when you hear this announcement, you know that you have to be ready to get out of the flight once the plane reaches its final parking destination. But when you hear the announcement in the middle of a taxi and that too when the flight is taxiing on the runway to take off then I know that something is wrong. In the last few weeks, I have noticed that this late-night flight is always late. This time around I was delighted that it was only 45 minutes late. I had already prepared myself for a good sleep with the eye mask on.
Some announcements will make the entire crowd say in one word “Oh No”. What was commendable was the communication from the flight desk. The lady in charge of the flight mentioned that there seemed to be a technical snag and that they needed to get us back to the parking bay and do a test. She added that these measures are for our safety. I saw a lot of merit in what she mentioned, so I decided to relax a bit. The news was that it would take an additional 30 minutes to carry out an engine test to be on the air soon. The guy behind me was having a “ sound sleep”. The decibel levels were getting louder and louder as there was silence inside the flight. But things changed with the arrival of food packets. I noticed that people were busy munching. Around 12.45 AM I was having spicy trail mix. I thought I had a good dinner and was not hungry. Suddenly with each passenger chewing, I joined the fray. Food is indeed an emotion. In the middle of the night we were waiting for the announcement from the deck. So I ate some Makhana- salt and pepper made it tasty, and savoured Atta Biskoot. Finally, it was time for nutty gritty ( premium dry fruits). Midnight snacking is great fun especially when you are waiting along with others for the next announcement.
Also unlike in a restaurant, everyone is eating the same things but in different order and comments are exchanged on the quality and quantity. My co-passengers had decided to keep all that they had safely in. their bags. Time flew and it was around 1 AM and that is when we heard “ This is your captain speaking. Once the doors are opened the baggage needs to be identified. So please give us some more time.” One person from the ground staff started identifying the bags and he would ask loudly ” Whose bag is this one “? There was no one supporting him from the ground force team. That’s when the patience was lost on a few passengers. They stood up and asked, ” What the hell is happening”? There was an uproar around the stupidity of having only one person tasked to identify 300 bags stowed up. Inside I also agreed with him. A couple of people joined the bandwagon and demanded that more ground staff members be pressed into action. It took some verbal volleys to land and finally two more groundsmen joined and the activity was complete. The rule states that even after taxing if the aircraft doors are opened they have to do this verification. I was under the impression that it was only there for connecting flights. I was asking myself this question about patience in these situations. I remembered Amit Tandon’s line, ‘ We don’t mind these delays because we know how we travelled back then in trains”.
My takeaway from this incident was that I saw people red-faced on a Red-eye flight. But the captain stood there with a charming smile as we disembarked through the front door. I thanked her with a gesture and she smiled back. I salute her for what she did. I wondered what was the mental model of pilots. I was giving updates to what is happening around. When things are beyond one’s control it is important to recognise and share. In this case engine snag was beyond her realm and what was in her control was to communicate the plan and figure out how to fix the problem and get us to our destination. A red-eye flight that made me realise a very important life lesson. When people are up in arms be matter-of-fact and communicate. That will solve a lot of our problems. Her voice gave me confidence and stayed with me compared to the noise of the passengers. I just wondered what was her mental model.
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