So I have come back from vacation. As great was the time in India, as difficult was the journey back from India to US. This time two elders, parents of my colleague in US, were also accompanying me on the journey. It was the first time when they were boarding a plan, leave going out of country aside. I had the big responsibility on my shoulders to ensure they get the best flight travel experience possible. We had a mid-journey stop at Frankfurt. Because of bad weather, in Europe, things didn’t go as planned. We were already running late and Pilot was hovering over Frankfurt seeking a possibility of landing. After an hour, and total of 12 hours since flight took off from IGI Airport Delhi, Pilot decide to fly to Paris.
That day I got to know that, according to Vienna convention, it was not possible for our flight to continue in the air beyond 14 hours. Per Vienna convention, same crew can’t continue in a flight beyond 14 hours and need 10 hour of break before resuming the service. As we landed on Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Paris, it was very certain that we were in a big trouble. Air India didn’t have any active office in Paris and there was not a remote possibility that we could fly any time sooner than in the evening that day because Frankfurt crew could not be transferred to Paris immediately.
But worst was yet to come. It was first time for me in the Paris and so was for 70% of my co-flyers. We had a cultural shock at Paris airport. We were taken to the Transit Area, no-man’s land, a place where you don’t even have water, rest-rooms, forget food. Air-India had collaboration with Air France. To my further surprise, there was no crew-member who could speak English. This was the first time I realize how important to learn foreign languages in this globalized world. All Americans and Europeans were allowed to enter the main airport. All people with Diplomat Visa were also allowed to roam around the city, and there we were, mostly Indians, struggling to get couple of water bottles. It was a tough situation to be in. We had many infants who, by now, needed more stuff than what was present there.
After 2 hour or so, when I got to know that we would not be traveling to Chicago before the evening following day, it just blew my mind. It was almost impossible for us to stay in transit area for two days. I went to Air France personnel and insisted on getting somebody who could speak English. After much time she got me a guy who could speak English, although in a strong french accent. I requested him to get me the Flight Manager of Air India. I’d got to know that even though Air India may not have a crew station in a country it must have a Flight Manager at all the major airports. After much persistence, One French lady who was wearing the Air India ID card came. I tried to get first hand information about when we would be flying to Chicago, on which she replied 6 PM the next day. This was the confirmation of more troubles that are on our ways for next 30+ hours. She quickly went away.
In the mean time, we had persuaded our French hosts to arrange few water bottles, sandwiches and milk for infants. However, unfortunately for me, there were very limited number of vegetarian sandwiches and they were off the self as they came. Although neither I nor my two dependents could get anything but water, now, I wanted to pursue Transit Visa for all of us who were there. It was again a big struggle to get to Air-India manager. She politely told me that it was not possible for her to arrange the Transit Visa for all of us, and it must have to be followed with Indian Embassy in Paris and French Government. Somehow I was able to convince her that at least we should get Visas for mothers with infants and old people above 50 years of age. She came back after one hour telling us that it is not possible to get any Visa. I requested her to connect me to Indian Embassy.
The official, in embassy, I spoke to was very polite to me. I offered to send her the pictures of the situation where infants were crying and people were struggling to get even water. She told me that she would do whatever she cold. By this time it was almost 12 hours since I was in transit area without anything in my stomach. First good news came when we got the information that we will be getting Visas for families that have infants at least. It was consoling up to some extent. Till now, my body was crying out loud for fuel and I, along with 2 co-passengers, had started pursuing the possibility of food. It was embassy and Air India Management that came to our rescue and we were given food voucher and escorted to airport shopping area and then back to the transit area. Here, once again I waited till the end to ensure each one of us gets food first. My bad luck continued and by the time I reached there, there was no vegetarian pack was available there. I came back with a Cheese cube and a water bottle.
While this was happening, I, along with few fellow passengers, was still trying to convince authorities to grant all passengers the Transit Visa. Good news came at 3 AM when we were told that all of us would be getting group visas and hotel accommodation in three groups. From the Visa authorities’ perspective, this group was like an atom, smallest indivisible entity. We needed to ensure that all in one group clear the immigration together while leaving the airport and while entering the airport next day. Any person left to do so, might get into all new legal formalities. People chose me the leader of one of the groups I was part of. Now I not only had the responsibility of 2 people who were accompanying me from Delhi, but also of 38 people in my group who were not strangers any more. We reached hotel at 4 AM.
As I had estimated that it would take approx 4 hours to complete the check-in and immigration formalities of so approx 150 passengers, we left the hotel around 12 noon next day. I conveyed the same to other group leaders in other hotels. We gathered at the airport at 1. However, there was no proper management to start the formalities for our flight. It was at 3 PM when we got the check-in started. Most of us were Indians and many of us couldn’t speak English or even Hindi, leave French aside. I and two more youngsters who could speak two other Indian languages, Tamil and Telgu, volunteered to mediate between the passengers and airline crew for Check-in formalities. Ultimately we completed all Check-in formalities by 7 PM. One crew member expressed his gratitude by telling me that it was impossible to get this done without having us as mediators. All of them thanked 3 of us for the support we provided.
So by this time our flight has already got delayed by 60 minutes. In another 1 hour, we completed all the immigration formalities as well and took off to Chicago. We reached Chicago at 4 AM and our flight to Atlanta was at 8:30, so our wait continued was much of the struggle was over. It took almost three days to reach Atlanta from Delhi.
This was one of those experiences that would live with me throughout my life.
