Monday, December 3, 2007

One small flying story (Or why Fact is stranger than Fiction)

The location:
On board of a flight say, from Mumbai to Delhi

The players of the drama:
The Captain of the plane. He ..ahem .. steps out from the cockpit to answer nature’s call.

The First Officer, who has just been served tea by the air hostess, realizes that it lacks sugar. So also steps out from the cockpit to ask her for the same.

The twist in the tale:
The door of the cockpit slams shut while both the gentlemen are outside and the plane is peacefully cruising on auto pilot.

The additional twist in the tale:
The cockpit doors apparently cannot be opened ordinarily from outside (in mid-flight) to prevent hijacking attempts.

The small window of opportunity:
The pilots are trained about a super secret method of opening the cockpit door exactly for eventualities like this one.

The small window of opportunity slams shut:
Both the pilots however, have unfortunately forgotten this method.

The solution:
Business class passengers are privileged to see the whole crew of the plane trying to batter down the cockpit door with a food trolley while BOTH the pilots stand outside twiddling their thumbs.

The postscript:
Apparently they WERE successful in opening the door somehow, which is why this is a comedy and not a tragedy.

This story was recounted to me by a friend – whose uncle was on the review board of airlines when this particular case came up. I don’t know anything about flying but I do know I am exceedingly glad I was not a Business class passenger on that particular flight.

9 comments:

Australopithecus said...

hehe.thats why i say fly economy..and travel sleeper class on train.

...and here i was complaining about a drunk driver.

Sidin said...

And no one took a mobile video of said incident? Sigh...

Cynic in Wonderland said...

travel in trains sounds like a verr good idea austro!

Cynic in Wonderland said...

hmmmm..the passengers must have switched off their cell phones sidin..in a situation like that, would you do anything that would disturb the radiofrequency or whatever thingummies happen inside the cockpit?

Twisted DNA said...

Oh my freaking God! I am surprised that the business class passengers panic and run around tearing clothes off! As Sidin said, a video weould've been so nice :)

Anonymous said...

i would have fainted!!
this is y i say Trains are better!!

Cynic in Wonderland said...

twisted dna ..the point is where would then run to? let me get off the plane ?

veens - completely agree!

Anonymous said...

holy crap! lol.

VB said...

Whoaaa!!

And I thought I had seen it all when the pilot on one of my flights honked. Twice. In mid air - just as we were about to touch down.