TV news reported today that a major clash occurred between Air India Ground staff and irate passengers over a delayed flight to Riyadh from Mumbai. It was alleged that the Airline staff manhandled a passenger who was trying to take a video of the incident. This brings to my mind a somewhat similar incident which happened on a flight from London to Mumbai thirty five years ago. In December 1979, I was returning from London to Bombay by an Air India flight, which was flying via Rome and Dubai. I was traveling Business class and accidentally met Captain Jimmy Martin, an ex-naval colleague, who was then the Public Relations Officer of the airline. We had a pleasant chat over our old times in the service. The flight took off late from London and could not touch down at Rome, as the airport was fog bound. It was diverted to Athens, landing at about ten at night. The passengers were kept in the dark till very late about the change and were unceremoniously asked to get down at Athens and proceed to the terminal. The entire crew vanished, leaving us in the lurch. Martin was also left behind with the rest of the passengers. It appeared that the crew had left for their hotels, as they had exceeded the maximum continuous hours of work permitted by the IATA. Over three hundred passengers, including many illiterate immigrants with small children from the Birmingham area and a sprinkling of foreigners, were left to fend for themselves in a strange airport, late in the night. Some even did not know they were in Athens and not Rome! This callous indifference to fare paying passengers by our national airline shocked me. I asked Martin to arrange for dinner and hotel accommodation for stranded passengers. Martin pleaded that he was just another passenger, facing the same predicament as the rest of us and he was equally helpless. I was livid and warned him that I did not buy his argument. As the public relations manager, it was his duty to protect the image of the airline, already damaged by the incident. I threatened that I would splash the incident in every Indian newspaper and make the reputation of the airline and his name mud. He then promptly swung in to action. Jimmy Martin got in touch with airport authorities and located the local general sales agent of Air India, who rushed to the airport. Food and beverages were organized for the passengers. I manned the public address system and explained the situation to the passengers in English, Hindi, Bengali and a smattering of other Indian languages I could speak. I told them that they need not worry and they would be taken care of. Martin, his initial hesitation notwithstanding, did a magnificent job of organizing accommodation and food. We were given dinner in the airport restaurant and double room hotel accommodation in the airport area. However, the authorities impounded our passports, giving us just paper receipts, a procedure that I resented but had to accept. When we reached the hotel, people were asked to go to rooms at random. The hotel management was not fluent in English and made a total mess of room allocations. Women were paired with strange men, families were separated and again chaos ensued. Martin and I took charge of the mess and sorted it out after fifteen minutes. Martin did a great job. Strangely, seeing the initiative I was taking in sorting out the problem and after learning that my name was Captain Mohan Ram, some passengers thought I was an Air India captain. Instead of thanking me for my initiative, they started castigating me! I particularly remember a young British born Gujarati girl, who was worried that she might be late for an important function in Bombay, which she had to attend without fail. I took charge of the situation because I felt that the passengers needed someone to take care of them. I did not want foreigners to think that all Indians were callous and incompetent. The next morning we were driven to the airport and mercifully given back our passports. The crew appeared around eleven in the morning and looked sheepish when they heard about the happenings the previous night. Jimmy Martin let fly at the captain, flight purser and other attendants over their failure and told them that it took two retired naval officers to salvage the situation. The purser came and thanked me. I queried him why he could not have detailed two or three flight attendants or hostesses to look after us. He replied that he did not have the authority, as the pilot had already left and only he could ask people to stay back. I retorted that in a crisis, authority was taken and not given. Anyone can flash medals in peacetime and as Mao said one would know who was General and who was a private, only when there was a war! Anyone could sail a boat in calm waters but it took a real sailor to handle a boat in a storm. No one had asked me to take charge of the passengers. I did out of my feeling that fellow Indians were suffering. The plane finally took off from Athens around noon. I was upgraded to first class by the grateful aircrew. On my advice, the pilot after apologizing for the incident, ordered a round of drinks for all passengers, compliments Air India. We reached Bombay late at night. Many passengers came and thanked me for my initiative and help. In particular, the young Gujarati girl was effusive in her thanks and said she could make her appointment. I was destined to meet her five years later again under different circumstances, when I took up my next assignment in Mukand Iron and Steel works limited.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 16:49:27 +0000
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