Assalamualaikom / Greeting Earthlings and fellow travelers....
Part 2..a continuation.
" That door is normally noisy. Common problems.The plane had landed from Sxxxpore with this problem (= ignoring weak signals) Our ground crew had checked and rectified it , (normalisation) Anyway there is no reason to worry, our ground staff had okay for us to fly (= read normalising unacceptable standards) .We are back on schedule (conflicting goals). ..assured the stewardess when I asked about that unusual level of noise in the plane which should have been an award-winning smooth-as-silk-and-silent A380. Noise from a supposedly air-tight door !!
Ignore weak signals at your own perils. When you are in position of responsibility and lives are dependent of your decisions, following gut feel is not good enough. Discipline, clear processes and total compliance are required to supplement personal competency. Ah that 's a bit of maintenance management for you. Air traveling is still a safe form of mass transportation and we hope that it continues that way...because there still many places in this beautiful planet of ours that I have not been and events that I yet to witness.
Normalisation - when one accepts unacceptable standards as new norm , together with ignoring weak signals and conflicting goals are three most common ingredients and recurring causation of accident . The wife reminded...lets try to be less an Engineer and less technical in your story telling...so that the extent of the technical stuff.
That was some two hours into the flight - alarm bells start ringing in my head having heard the statement as made by the leading stewardess . It was during my toilet break after meal and in the middle of my second movie , that whilst queuing for the rest room located at the rear section , I noted the rear area was unusually noisy. One can hear noises from the rear left ,which should otherwise be, an air-tight door. One can hear sound of speeding air through the door...high pitch sound just like one experience when driving in speeding car with the window slightly ajar. Noticed most of the passengers in this section (economy class) had airline-issued Bose earphones (usually issued to business and first class passengers) and some had the thick comfy first class blanket on.. perhaps the superior noise-canceling ear phones was to drown the noise and extra blanket for warmth since its definitely chill(er) here. Alarm bells ringing but no panic yet after all this is a reputable airline and a premium fare flight. Not a cheap no frill budget airline.
Four hours into the flight. Toilet break again, paused the third movie. The free flow of drinking water and orange juices whilst watching the movies taking a toll on the old bladder. Whilst checking out the rear section, noted the seats by the noisy door now totally vacated. It was also profoundly much nosier and colder here. There were many empty seats in the rear section which I had not noticed to be empty earlier. Obviously some passengers from the rear section had been relocated elsewhere.
Alarm bells in my head now ringing louder and faster. Ooo oh..what's going on here.?? Being a practicing engineer with an oil and gas company who pride on our own safety culture and impressed with this airline operator 's safety record , this was a bit concerning. Is the problem escalating ? Need we be worried.?? Why were there no cautionary yet assuring messages to rest of passengers ? More questions than answers tic-toeing in my mind. Having studied aeronautical engineering as a module at University had not help with flashes of past calculations and formulas of stresses induced on airframes bla..bla.. unequalised pressure bla..bla..bla.. structural deformations bla..bla... fueled wild fantasies and sordid imagination started clouding the mind impacting emotion.. I hadn't realise how fast these fantasies mushroomed into multiple probable scenarios in your minds especially when you were sitting on a toilet seat in an airplane with suspected "leaking" air-tight doors..(subsequently confirmed by the news media after the emergency landing). Leaking air-tight door. How much pressurized air does this plane carry? How long can the door sustain ?? Heavy breathing. Despite the chill temperature, cold sweat start flowing. Rushed back to the seat.
Guess this would had been one of those rare occasion when ignorance would be bliss. Without wanting to sound alarmist , gently reminded accompanying family members to keep their seat belts securely fastened at all times. Securely fasten your seat belts at all times. All times. I reminded them. Yeah..yeargh..they answered half asleep. Checked. Confirmed that their seat belts were securely fastened.
What if....what if...damn those airplane crashes investigation documentaries...flash back of some of the documentaries' key moments replayed back inside my head.. Awkward moments to remember about air-crash investigation documentaries. Weak signals, Normalisation. Conflicting goals. False sense of security. Key ingredients and recurring findings..bla..bla.. airline crash investigatI cannot concentrate on the inflight movie any more. Got up and start taking out some items from the carry-on back pack. I remembered one of many pre-departure safety announcement. "In the unlikely... event of emergency , when evacuating the aircraft ,..do not carry anything with you.. " Guess you have to have what you want to have on you....
Passports - checked. Mobile phone - checked. Cash and credit card - checked. Yassin book - checked. Need to keep them all handy and within reach and quickly can be slipped onto the pockets if needed be. Re-read suraah Yassin again. Calming. Pray and Doa. Fell asleep in between.
Six hours into flight. " Crew , Sit Down !!" bellowed the Captain over the PA system in stern, serious and unmistakably commanding voice. May be I was on my fifth or sixth movie then... lost count. I'd been flicking between the channels since I cannot really concentrate on the movies any more when suddenly the Captain broke the silence and made that abrupt short announcement. "Crew sit down..." Unmistaken command.
This was not the usual announcement. Not the usual gentle , calming voice of captain or crew warning of impending "...air turbulence reminding passengers to remain seated , remove your child(ren) from basinets and hot beverages service-being suspended-type announcement .." This announcement was definitely new and I heard it said that way for the first time. Upon the announcement., I saw the stewardesses almost double-quick step back to their stations, dispensing their usual grace of gliding checking whether passengers had fastened their seat-belts on their way to their stations. This time they almost hop-scotched , short of running , back to their stations. With urgency. Visible concerns in their faces. Alarm bells ringing wild.
Before I could express my concern to my families , few seconds later., the plane "dropped" into a rapid descend. The recorded announcement "This is Emergency,,This is Emergency.: and air-masks dropped from the bulk-head.. Dark. Emergency lights. Shrieks of panic. . Heavy breathing. Shouts of despair . Comforting shoos ... occasional tears....refer post #4...for details.
One hour after the emergency announcement (7th hour), which seems like eternity, Captain announced why the rapid descend...we were losing cabin's air pressure (most probably from the leaking door - the door had been leaking oxygen/air for the last seven hours....!!) and due to this., he had to maintain flying at low altitude., (what he had not mentioned ...because beyond the area we were currently flying, we would be in the Himalayas mountain range - amongst the highest land points on earth. !!) Knowing too much geography can be scary too. We were lucky (?? - under the circumstances looking at it post event ) that the Captain decided to take evasive action and descend to 10,000 feet now rather than later and proceed flying over the mountain ranges... at 10,000 feet one can breathe without air mask and pressure is almost equilibrium.
Have you ever wondered how your own heavy breathings sound like ?? In that hour ., you were lost in your own thoughts , you can hear your own breathing. Its feels like drawing every breathe as if it was your last. Scary thoughts.
The Captain said that we need to make "unscheduled stop - emergency landing " as soon as possible - more shrieks, panic yells - and he is working with home base crew to locate nearest airport that can accommodate a desperate A380 aircraft...and remind all passengers that this stop-over area is not part of the airline's normal route - services may not be at high standard expected where we landed.. Guess the Captain was trying to manage expectation, especially the high paying premium passengers... Hello, just land us safely please. We can talk about complaining about not getting premium services later...
The next four to five hours were agonizingly long and dragging . Sounds of our own heavy breathing and darth-vader like conversation with fellow passengers (speaking through air-masks) were punctuated by announcements by the Captain. The chronicles of unfortunate events and subsequent communications from the Captain would have been comically hilarious had it been part of a movie plot , but not when it involved you in a distressed air-plane. The following
- Captain: We were just two hours away from nearest airport at something xxban (??) where we can land. A forth coming relief. Wait a minute..where is this airport again ...Where is that ?? Can't find that airport in the route map. we were presently somewhere in central Asia prior to entering mountain range of the Himalayas. Doesn't it s it sound like Harry Potter's " Prisoners of Ascaban " ?? Flight tracking mode was not operative then.
whilst wondering where the airport and to be told an hour later....
- Captain : I am sorry , our base support team advised that xxban cannot accommodate A380. We need to find alternative nearby airport. By the way, are there any Russian speaking passenger onboard., please identify yourself to one of the crew.
More shouts...more doom scenarios were being widely imagined...more heavy breathing.
- Captain: We are please to advise that we can now proceed towards Baku. We should be there in two hours time. However bla..bla.. that Baku airport is not our normal stop over airport and they do not service A380 planes. bla.bla.. please relax bla..bla.. await further instructions from the crew. Quick search - Baku is capital of Azerbaijan , by the Caspian Sea.... at least we now know our destination.
An hour en route to Baku , more announcement another unfortunate event ...
- Captain: we are too heavy and need to use up more fuel before we can (attempt) landing...bla..bla.. need to circle around to burn more fuel. ..bla..bla.. The airport was visible in the dark nights. So were the flashing blue and red lights of the emergency services on the ground on the airport tarmac...so many flashing blues and red lights...we flew circling around the airport...questions flashing in the mind..the airport is not geared for A380., will the runway be strong enough to handle A380 , will it be long enough, wide enough..bla..bla... been seeing too many action pack movies involving airports and airplanes lately...
- Captain : I need to lower the landing gears to speed up burning more fuel. Good that he announce this before he lowers the landing gears because I swear I heard the most spine-chilling metal cracking sound ever in my 30 odd years of flying when he lowered the landing gear....did anything fell off...aeronautical engineering calculation flashes again sending cold seat.
- Captain: We are making final approach for landing . No need to mention " please brace yourselves, lets pray together for safe landing and you may want to say you goodbyes to your love ones if they happen to be seated near you....." those unsaid words could be ringing in most of the passengers head right then as the plane made the final approach. Plane picking up speed, flashes of lights can be seen across the window ,
Flashing red lights, blue lights. Red light. Blue lights. The plane abruptly stop. Stop. Silent. Sounds of claps. Cheers. Alhamdulillah. Safe and smooth landing. Cheers of horray can be heard in the cabin. Sigh of relief. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. Hugs and kisses around. Lets not do this ever again. One experience is one too much and will last a life time.
I have never felt so grateful to have landed onto a foreign land as I felt then. Alhamdulillah., and it was great to have smelt the cold air as I stepped out of the airplane onto the mobile staircase. The flashing lights of red and blue were the emergency services which were tracking the plane as it landed..and Bako airport was big enough to handle the A380 air planes after all...
Welcome to Baku , Azerbaijan . It was 00;30am local time and 20;30hrs London time. Almost 12 hours in tension mode and the last four -six hours were in emergency mode.!! Sujud kesyukuraan. Done. An unscheduled emergency landing - where we were treated as unwelcome nuisance guest rather than distressed airline passenger. Its 25 hours later that we took off from Baku to our next destination Singapore. That's another story all together. That's another posting.
Right now thankful to be touched solid land in one piece.. albeit in a foreign land. Our diversion made the international news that day....only then I knew there were another group of Bruneian in the plane.
Lessons learnt;
- keep your passport handy and easy to be slipped onto your pockets if need be
- have mobile phone, loose cash and credit card available
- fasten seat belts on flights and keep fasten at all times.
- not to have too many wild imaginations if you can....
Safe landing and smooth airpot clearance wishes to fellow travelers., wherever your final destination may be.
Wassalam/regards
sallehbostaman 21/feb 2015 @ 2/JamadilAwal.
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| India highway - family ride: enough space for everyone.. |
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| Jaipur , India - princely ride |
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| Jaipur - India : ride Elephant-jam ..(traffic jam equivalent) |
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| Moscow metro - ride : almost homely |
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| Hangzhou - China : beauty vs safety ride |
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| New Delhi India - world's largest eco friendly bus - taken for a ride. |
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| Hangzhou , China: leisurely scenic ride |
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| Beijing ; -new communal ride |
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| Tutong beach , Brunei : future personal ride |
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| 0-100mph in 26 sec : this would be my personal choice of ride |
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| Birmingham shopping mall : ice-cream joy ride with grand /dad |
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| Tower hill , London - walk no ride. |
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| London underground - mass ride: mind the gap |
