‘We thought it was the last minute of our lives’

35-year-old Meenu Khelkar was one of the 111 passengers on board the Dubai-Pune Air India Express flight which almost nose-dived on May 26
Recalling the entire episode to Mirror, Meenu who works as a market-ing manager in a company in Dubai said, “It was a nightmarish experience for me and for all other passengers who were on board at the Dubai Pune flight that night.
When I was booking my tickets to come to Pune, my friends and colleagues living in Dubai warned me about Air India after the Mangalore crash. But this was the only direct flight from Dubai to Pune and so I took it.
The flight which was scheduled to depart by 7 pm got delayed by one and half hours.”
Meenu added, “After we boarded the flight, some 40 minutes had passed and the air hostesses were serving the food, when the aircraft suddenly started wobbling.
First we thought it was a normal tremble but then, suddenly, the aircraft dived down. Due to the shake, the trays and cups fell down, the passengers clutched their seats and fastened their seat betls.
There were jerks because of which people around were screaming and children were crying. But to everyone’s relief, the aircraft started ascending.
After sometime, the pilot made an announcement saying that the flight has hit an air pocket because of which the inconvenience was caused to the passengers.
04/06/10 Payal Banerjee/Pune Mirror

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Categories: Air India Budget Jun 2010, NACIL Jun 2010, Safety Jun 2010