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Sofitel Alhamra Hotel, Jeddah, Monday, 1999-03-08 18:30 local (Z+3)
Greetings All,
I'm incredibly tired. I just got in from Delhi only to find that I've got to go to Bangalore tomorrow. A bunch of us have gotten sick, so those of us who aren't are working our butts off. A number of things have happened that I want to remember, so without giving much detail here they are.
The last couple of days have been bad for India insofar as aircraft accidents. Two days ago an Air France 747 freighter crashed in Chennai. It burnt on the one runway there long enough for 747 operations, and we can't go back there until they get the wreckage cleared. The aircraft's nose gear collapsed on landing and it skidded to a stop on the runway on its nose. The crew walked off the airplane. Forty minutes later a fire started. In the U.S., fire-fighting equipment stays at such an accident site for many hours to preclude such a happening. The Indians didn't bother with that precaution, and they couldn't get back in time to prevent it from completely burning except for the tail.
Yesterday a Russian-made Indian Air Force jet transport crashed at Delhi while trying to land on the same runway and in the same fog that I had landed in half an hour earlier. All aboard were killed when the airplane impacted just off the airport.
Delhi is notorious for early morning ground fog, made worse by the thousands of incinerators they use to burn their trash. We started the approach—my leg—when the runway visual range (RVR) indicator was reporting 1300 feet. Our minimums at that airport are 1200 feet. Before we got to the final approach fix, the RVR went down to 1100 feet and we broke off the approach and went into a holding pattern. When the RVR went back up to 1300, we left the hold, shot the ILS approach to runway 10, and landed.
The decision height, the altitude above the ground below which you cannot legally descend unless you see the runway or its approach light system, is 200 feet for that approach. We got the approach lights at 250 feet, and, though the ILS needles were perfectly centered, we were markedly to the right of the runway centerline, and I had to slip the airplane left to get it down on the runway. You can't trust approach aids in this part of the world. They don't properly maintain them.
Some flight attendants, looking out the right side of the airplane, apparently got frightened when at the last moment before touchdown they saw a KLM 747 waiting to takeoff. They said it looked to them like we were going to hit it. We had plenty of clearance even with the ILS's right offset, but in the fog things can be deceiving.
Yesterday we had fires in the cabins of two separate airplanes, one while in flight, one at the gate just after arrival. In both cases, Indians smoking were the cause. These are non-smoking flights, but most male Indians are heavy smokers, and to keep from getting caught, they cover themselves with blankets or clothing they've brought along, and these belongings occasionally catch fire. The flight attendants know this, and they make sure they have fire-extinguishers handy. In both cases, flight attendants quickly extinguished the flames.
On today's flight here from Delhi, I walked the length of the cabin. Midway between the third and fourth entry doors on the left side, I encountered a smell the likes of which I have never experienced, really bad but nothing like the usual shit smell. By the time I reached some flight attendants at the fourth entry door jumpseats, the smell was gone, but I asked then what in the hell was causing that. The answer, “Gangrene.” They were hoping the guy from whom it was coming would survive the flight. They didn't want the task of putting him in a body bag. Nobody has died aboard any of our airplanes yet on this Hajj. Usually, deaths on the aircraft happen during phase two, returning the Hajjis home. They're exhausted then, and psychologically ready to die, having completed the most difficult of the five pillars of the Muslim faith. Besides, if they die “making Hajj,” that's an automatic ticket to heaven, or at least so we're told.
I'm having problems making an Internet connection. I'm going to try again in a couple of minutes, but I suspect these things may not get sent until I get back to the states somewhere around the 19th.
Take care...Terry
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