“Sorry Sir,but the flight is full…”,the lady over the counter said.
“Comeeon ma’am!I have to get on that flight,all my friends are on that plane.Please ma’am you have to let me onboard.”I said.
I guess she was abit amused by an asian talking to her in an
British-Canadian accent.But she took pity on me and granted me a seat next to the toilet.These are probably the worst seats in the plane.You can actually hear the sound of the flush every time someone does the dew!
By the way,there was still sometime for the flight to take off.I engaged myself in looking at pretty girls boarding the plane.What else do you expect from an engineer(I did my mechanical engg from Univ. of Warwick,UK).
There was this really pretty airhostess who caught my eye.At the training centre where I was for the last 3 months,there were no girls.Even the cooks there were male!
Then a good looking (Punjabi,I guess) girl boarded the flight.She was dressed in a white salwar.Indian girls are extremely attractive,I thought.
She came to me and said,”I guess you are on my seat…”
I sure was.”I..I..am sorry”,I muttered as I tried to shift to the adjacent seat.
I have seen many testosterone driven guys who go crazy at the thought of a pretty girl occupying the adjacent seat.But mate,its not like she was dying to sit beside you.Its just that the Indian Airlines guys gave that seat to her!
I tried to strike a conversation with her.
“Hi! So you got the toilet seat too?You must have checked in really late?”,I said.
“Yeah!Actually my grandma took ill suddenly .So I have to meet her in New Delhi”
“Oh,so you are going to Delhi?”
“Obviously! Thats where the flight is going,right?!”,she said,giving me the ‘duh?’ look.
“Dont be so sure…”,I said.
She looked at me,half jokingly,half suspiciously.
I guess the height(33000 feet above sea level)was affecting the flow of blood to my brain.The last sentence that I said could have spoiled ‘The flight of the millenium‘.I was feeling giddy.I always feel giddy at heights.All this even after I got my CPL(Commercial Pilot’s License)just 4
months ago.
I got my CPL from Canada.The course requires 500 hrs of flying in 8 months.This was before I joined the Training Centre.
“Veg or Non-veg?”,the airhostess asked.(The same one who had caught my eye)
“Veg.”,I said.I guess I was too bored with the non-veg fare they served at the Training Centre.
“Are you alright?”,the girl who was seated beside me asked.I think her name was Trupti,because she had a pen on which the words TRUPTI were inscribed.
“Yeah,why?”I asked.
“You seem to be uncomfortable.Why are you looking at your watch all the time?”,she asked.
“You will know at 4:53!”,I said.
“What will happen at 4:53?”
“You will see!!”
Now it was her turn to be uncomfortable.
My casio sounded the alarm at 4:53.My Friends got up from their respective seats.Shahid(doctor) got up from 15B,Sunny Ahmed(Burger) from 5C,Mistri Ibrahim(Bhola) from 16C,Shakir(Shankar)from 12A and I got up from my seat at 28C.I removed the monkey cap from my pocket and put it on.I took out a knife from my sock and waved it in the air
“Stay calm! Everybody place your head between your knees…Your plane has been HIJACKED.Next stop-Kandhar!”
PS-
*The Training Centre that I was talking about is in Islamabad,Pakistan.
**I had acquired the CPL so that I could fly IC814 to Kandhar(just in case)….
**The names doctor,burger,Bhola,shankar were code words we used instead of names
***And yes, I forgot to add,my name is Ibrahim Akhtar(chief)
Editor in chief Arshat Chaudhary
Current Issues: IC814, Kandhar