Yathra
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED A PILOT COMRADE Vargheese George, Head - International Business
2 nd June 2016. I was on my return trip from Mexico city to Kochi via Houston and Dubai. Travel from Mexico city to Houston was in Aeromexico flight which was in codesharing with Emirates. The departure procedures went normal at Mexico city airport and my bags were tagged till Kochi for a flying time of 19 hours in three aircrafts. There was an additional transit time of 11 hours at Houston and Dubai. Aeromexico flight departed on time from Benito Juárez International Airport, Mexico city. There was some inflight announcements after one hour, which captain made in Spanish language and I couldn’t follow it. He was informing passengers that climate in Houston was very bad and the flight was getting diverted to San Antonio airport in USA, which is around 350kms west of Houston. We landed there and waited in the flight for almost one hour to get the clearance from Houston. Since the weather was not getting better, as per US regulations we had to clear the emigration and customs at San Antonio airport and collect the bags. If the weather would not get better again, captain could decline to continue the onward trip to Houston and the aircraft would go back to its origin airport. In that scenario, we should fetch a cab and reach Houston airport for onward connection. Only four passengers in that aircraft were having onward connection to Dubai and all others were going to US. We were almost sure that we would miss the connection. When I was waiting for my bags at the luggage belt after emigration, I was fascinated with a tall white man at his late 50’s, talking to the captain of the aircraft. They were sharing jokes in loud voice. Even though the conversation was a Spanish English mix, I could make out that this person is also an INSIGHT • JULY - DECEMBER 2021 • 14
airline pilot. Since aircrafts and aviation was a bit of interesting subject for me, I went to him later to have a chat. He was a Mexican by the name Mr. Jorge. He served in Aeromexico for long time as a pilot and resigned to join Emirates. Currently he was working as a pilot in senior captain rank in Emirates who had 2 more years for retirement. He was going back to join his duty in Dubai after his holidays in Mexico. We conversed a lot about his job at Emirates and other current matters in aviation industry. He suggested that we could go together to Houston in the cab. Since he was communicating with the pilot of Aeromexico through mobile, we were getting the latest weather updates. Finally, after 2 hours, weather in Houston was ok and our aircraft was ready to continue its journey to Houston. Bags were checked in again and we boarded the aircraft. We were very sure that we would not get the connection as the original transit time at Houston was only 3 hours and we already passed it. The only hope was the word by Mr. Jorge that the incoming Emirates also might have diverted to some other airport due to harsh weather. We finally landed at Houston 4 hours delayed and while our aircraft was taxiing to the parking bay, we could see the huge Emirates Airbus A380 almost getting ready for departure at a distant gate. Mr. Jorge told me that if we rush we could have a small chance to catch it. He asked me whether I am following him. Without any hesitation, I agreed, as I was eager to reach home after a month-long tour. Since our emigration and customs was already over at San Antonio, we were arriving there as domestic passengers. We requested the cabin crew to have a priority disembarking and we rushed to the next gate. It
