Today’s headline in the Times of India literally shook me up from sleep : “Alliance Air pilot mistakes Kochi for Kozhikode”. Great way to start the day, I thought.
We have had stories about the fumbling of the airlines, particularly the state owned ones so many times that we have ceased to laugh. But this one tops it all. The pilot has announced after the landing that he thought he had landed in Kozhikode ! Nowadays we have expat pilots from Eastern European countries and we have had a few cases where they had problems with their English. Maybe he thought Kochi was the short form of Kozhikode ! A few days back we read about the bungling of Kingfisher Airlines where they put hundred odd passengers (sorry, guests) in a wrong flight.
But it raises bigger questions : what was the ATC doing ? Did the ATC think it was sitting in Kochi or did they dream of sitting in Kozhikode ? Very soon an enquiry will be called for, the pilot will be de-rostered and our minister will say something on TV to save the face. And all will be forgotten- till the next one comes up.
But serious as it is, we also must give it to the airlines for making our drab mundane life adventurous- just imagine you board a flight not knowing where it will land. It maybe in Kochi or Kozhikode this day, Imphal the next morning and Jaipur in the afternoon, back in Chennai just in time for dinner.
You can have a real bohemian trip- the real magical mystery tour. Maybe this can shore up our foreign exchange reserves- we can promote this as the ultimate tourism for India: please come to this mythical world, take a flight and land you do not know where ! What a catch-line for the ITDC guys. Just arm yourself with a good quality of binoculars and keep looking out of the window and yell “Land Ho !” when you see the terra firma ! People will fly for the sheer novelty of it.
Hey the pilot should not be de-rostered, he must be given an award for shoring up the economy.
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