we be burning.
3:18 a.m. || 2007-12-08
the flight to Krabi was delayed today. they called me in the afternoon, telling me to report about 35 minutes later than rostered time.
during pre-flight briefing, we were joking about this haunted aircraft that everyone is spooked about. and by a twist of fate, we were to take that aircraft. apparently a passenger died there not too long back, and since then, things have been seen. well i haven't seen anything so the only spooks i had were from the stories being told.
when we finally got on board, the engineers were called in to fix a problem with the air-conditioning. i've had that type of delay before so it wasn't much to me. i was more interested in whether we were going to have a nightstop in Krabi. i've been to Krabi before and it's beautiful. and besides, everyone hopes for a nightstop somewhere other than Singapore, because all we do are turnarounds.
it was about 20 to ten when we finally took off. after handing out immigration forms into Thailand, we pushed out our f&b sales carts; my crew in charge and i pushing one from the front, and the other two from the back.
i was speaking to a passenger who thought that she could get a cup of water for free, and explaining that we have no drinkable lukewarm water on board, but only mineral water bottles that we sell. sometimes it really embarrasses me that we can't even provide a basic necessity, like water, for free. snacks and drinks can be sold for profits, but definitely not what a human body needs, in my opinion.
but she was cool with paying for a bottle, and after giving me the money, said, "can you check why hot air is coming out from the air vent?"
i felt the open air vent above her and my heart sank: the air conditioned failed again, and this time at 35,000 feet. telling her i'd raise the matter to my crew in charge, i turned to the other passengers on my right to serve them. this time, a lady asked me why we switched on the heater.
it suddenly dawned on me that the cabin was starting to get rather hot and stuffy. i turned to the back and found rows of passengers fanning themselves. my crew in charge noticed this and disappeared into the cockpit. more and more passengers started to ask me about the "heater". i knew, with dread, that it was not any heater. hot air was entering the cabin, and the temperature was rising. i was starting to get uneasy.
the crew in charge returned and broke the news to me: we'd be diverting back to Singapore. i immediately felt the descent of the aircraft. thank goodness we were not far from land!
passengers were getting nervous as well and most bought drinks to cool off. a man muttered irritably that we shouldn't even have taken off in the first place. another man appealed that i give out cups of cool water to the kids.
later, i learnt that the captain had called for Mayday, and they were starting to prepare for an emergency landing. the temperature in the cabin was at 40 degrees and it was rising continually. the flight deck crew had to descend, or risk setting the engines ablaze. how close we were to having a freak accident!
we finally landed and were appalled to find that flight ops still wanted us to fly that night. they told us that only a change in aircraft was needed and we just had to wait for the next arrival of another aircraft.
luckily, captain insisted that he and the first officer were too mentally unfit to fly. some trauma they suffered! crew in charge insisted that as a team, us crew should be offloaded as well. he explained that with a near emergency happening, we had the right to be in state of shock and trauma, and deserved some rest for the night.
after much hesitation from flight ops and the management(those money faced profit making bastards), the flight was postponed to the day after. the passengers were the last to know as i left the departure hall. i still wonder whether our company compensated them or paid for a night's stay here. it was clear that the 160 passengers were not going to trust this airline for a long time. not just because of a technical fault, but also because of the lack of communication between the company and the passengers, and how apparent it was that the company didn't really care about the passengers' comfort. i predict letters being written to the newspapers soon, regarding this flight. the company better prepare an apologetic press release.
i know that if they had forced me to go on flying tonight, i'd write in a letter too. i really hate how they'd rather save on paying the crew, instead of making sure we didn't suffer from side effects from a near emergency situation. i mean it is a life and death situation after all. oh well.
i just know that i should've kept my mouth shut about that particular aircraft. though that sauna experience was due to technical error, i still get goosebumps thinking about how we could have been slowly cooked alive at 35,000 feet.