I took Air India Express Flight IX-252, Nagpur to Mumbai on 07-June-2009. Scheduled Departure: 22:50.
I was on the way to airport at around 7pm, when I got a call from Air India Express Staff, Nagpur Airport, that the flight is Pre-poned by one and half hour and now it will leave Nagpur at 9~ 9:15PM. I was surprised this is a Dubai - Ahmedabad - Nagpur - Mumbai flight and how can it come so early. Is it flying supersonic between Ahmedabad to Nagpur.
I asked my cabbie to drive fast & I managed to reach airport by 9PM. There was nobody at the airport except a few passenger(less than 10) and a few staff(3 to 5 of them).
Most of the lights were switched off, to save electricity, as it happens on Mumbai railway stations immediately after the last local leaves. The boarding pass was already printed, before shutting down their computers, so as soon as I reached the Airport, the air line staff asked my name and gave me the pre-printed boarding pass.
Then we were asked to go through security check and wait in the boarding hall. To my surprise behind me, all the lights at the airport were switched off, because probably it was the last flight and the staff were waiting to go home.
The flight was at the scheduled time of 22:50, but they passed on wrong message to all the passengers, so that the ground staff can do their work, log out and go home.
Around 22:30 we boarded the aeroplane. I being a little tall, took a seat near the emergency exit so that I can strech my leg and have a short nap.
As soon as the engines start, the emergency exit door next to me started vibrating violently and I felt it will fall out. I immediately pressed the button to call the air-hostess, but no body turned up. The flight vibrated on the ground, like a bull tapping his legs, about to race. It took off within seconds, without even running on the run-way for a while(based on my earlier 20+ flights).
As soon as we were air borne, I started uttering my final prayers of life, the engine on my side started making wiered noises. The noise were worse then State Transport Bus. The noise was deafening.
The Air-Hostesses started serving small bottle of water to all. As soon as she reached my seat, she heard the noise, panicked, shouted "Mam" to her senior and went running towards the back towards her seat.
Now I was 100% sure, there is some problem. Maybe the door is about to open, and if it opens, I’d be the first one to be pulled out in the space due to air pressure difference.
I pressed the call button, but no-body turned up. I over secured my seat belt and kept praying.
Finally I saw the lights of Mumbai from the sky, and the plane went into un-usal turbulences. As soon as we hit a cloud, the noise used to worsen. After lot of roller-coster turns, the flight landed in Mumbai.
We waitied for almost 25 to 30 minutes with doors closed, waiting for ground support. There was no body in Mumbai to attach stair case to our flight. The pilot announced, "I’m trying my best to get you out of this plane at the earliest, but there is no ground support available. I’m in touch with my employer to provide us ground support asap"
I was sure, even the pilot is in hurry to leave, poor guy might be flying all the wasy from Dubai to Ahmedabad to Nagpur to Mumbai. Their stamina is same as our State Transport Guys, beleive me I’ve seen a single driver driving MSRTC Bus from Hyderabad to Mumbai.
Request all of you, to confirm with the pilot while boarding the plane, if maintenance was done on this plane & if everything is functioning properly.