Flying in a terrorized world (Part 1)
This is an account of the rather eventful (and tiring) journey I took to the US on 11th August.
Air India flight AI137 to Los Angeles via Frankfurt was scheduled at 07:10 on the 11th. On the previous day I had heard with alarm the news of a busted terrorist plan to blow up flights to the US from London using liquid explosives. I had expected that flight schedules for the next few days might be disrupted because of this, but the AI helpline had confirmed (last at 11pm on the previous night) that the flight was on schedule.
On reaching Sahar Int’l at 4am, I discovered that the AI staff was not allowing laptops and cellphones in hand baggage, and were asking passengers to checkin these items as checked luggage. This was scary. Airline baggage handlers don’t exactly handle bags with “kid gloves”. They literally throw and toss them around like pillows. Checking in my laptop would mean risking its arrival at the destination smashed, cracked, or something like that. When I insisted that I needed to carry my laptop, mobile and digital camera with me in the cabin, the lady behind the checkin counter warned me that I risked being disallowed to take them in at the security checkpoint. If that happened, I would have to either leave them at the airport, or shell out a small fortune and buy a new bag/suitcase from one of the duty free shops, pack the laptop into it and have it checked into cargo.
After a little thought I decided to check the stuff in. I opened one of my bags, rearranged stuff, put the laptop, cellphone and camera in the laptop case, put the case inside the bag, stuffed clothes around it and locked it up. It was reasonably cushioned and packed, but I was still doubtful if the gadgets would survive baggage handling. Anyway, after going through checkin and immigration, I proceeded to the security checkpoint.
At security, I was surprised to find that they were allowing laptops and mobiles on passengers. Apparently some passengers had decided to ignore the AI staff warnings and take a chance. At first I cursed the AI people for not co-ordinating things properly and not being properly informed (This impression changed afterwards, as I will show later)
I asked an AI official nearby if I could still try to take my laptop out of the bag. He said if the bag wasn’t already put in the container, there was a chance. This guy turned out to be very helpful. He made a few calls on his wireless, gave my baggage tag number and tried to find out where it had reached by then. Turned out that it was already put in container 4L, but the container was not yet loaded in the aircraft. He called one of his colleagues who drove me in a van, out into the airfield where container 4L was waiting on a loading truck. A cargo worker opened the container lid and the AI guy asked me if the bag was there. I couldn’t see it, but it could have been behind the outermost layer of bags. I don’t know. Anyway, I decided that now nothing could be done about it, so let’s just move on. I thanked the helpful AI official and went back to the security checkpoint, and then waited in the boarding area.
I had told folks at home that I’ll call them from the airport once I was through checkin, immigration and security. Now I suddenly realized that I had put my cellphone in the checked in bag. Oops. I thought of calling them from a pay-phone at the terminal, but then I discovered another problem: I didn’t have their phone numbers!!! That’s right. Falguni, Mom, Dad, my sisters… I didn’t have any of their numbers in my head. They were all in my cellphone’s phonebook! OK, so my phonebook was synced with my Outlook contacts, but no use, I didn’t have my laptop either. At that moment I realized how hopelessly dependent I had become on technology and gadgets. Worse, since I had turned the phone off before packing it, my family would continuously get a “not reachable” response if they tried to call me. I thought this might lead them to worry, since it was well before departure time and they were not going to hear from me for quite some time.
Lesson learnt: Keep important personal phone numbers in your head. It’s very easy to ignore this since you’re mostly calling by name from your cellphone’s phonebook. You never know when you may be in an emergency, and you might not have your cellphone with you then. There’s no substitute for good old human memory.
I had no choice but to wait till I had reached Los Angeles (which was 22 hours from now), get my cellphone back out from my luggage, retrieve the numbers and call my folks long distance. Of course, I’d first have to find a prepaid calling card or a phone with international dialing, but that was another problem.
I remembered a Buddhist saying: “If there is no solution, then what is the use of worrying? If there is a solution, then why worry?”
Since I had decided that there was no solution, I decided to try not to worry. Given my nature, this wasn’t going to be easy. I would have to endure 22 hours of flying while my precious gadgets rattled around in the cargo bay and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
Trying to resign myself to the situation, I patiently waited for boarding for AI137 to begin.
(To be continued…)
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