Diary From The Missing Plane



  Diary From The Missing Plane

 

  by Shrimant

  ©2014 by Shrimant

  Published 2014 by:

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations to books and critical reviews. This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Dedicated to all humans who finished the journey of their life in plane crashes

  Diary From The Missing Plane

  Frankly speaking, I am starting to write this from day three. Last two days we were confident that we would be rescued by our Government. I even planned to reschedule my appointment in Bangkok and go back to meet my family instead. I can clearly see the worried face of my wife and my two children. I can clearly feel the tense heartbeats of my elderly mother and father. I honestly wanted to tell them that I am alright. A simple text from my cell phone could have solved all these problems. Unfortunately, there was no network. I asked almost all the passengers and discovered that everyone was asking the same question to other passengers. This was the only topic of discussion among the estranged passengers who almost didn’t know one another. No one was asking of the well-being of the other passengers. Imagine, had this unfortunate incident happened fifty years ago, when there was no cell phone. Entire group would have behaved like one family and shared the grief among one another. With the enormous boost in communication capabilities, people are actually communicating less with their neighbours.

  I still have doubt that all the cell phones will be confiscated. The place looks like some alien planet. I can’t find any sight of a small town or even a village. In my heart, I know that is impossible. It must be some remote island, not inhabited by humans. The hijackers must have planned this well in advance. They have built a make-shift hidden runway having towering wall like mountains on both sides. I also can figure out there is roof to protect the plane completely from the gazing eyes of the satellites.

  I don’t quite remember. Dawn was yet to come, and it was still dark. I was sleeping on my business class seat. Suddenly there was the announcement that plane is about to land, and we should fasten our seat belts etc. I am a frequent business flier since last almost twenty five years. I fastened my seat belt, straightened my seat and then looked at my watch. I always set the time of my watch as per the destination time. The flight was almost two hours late. It was strange. We have left as per schedule. I don’t recall of any turbulence in the air. I looked around for an answer. There was no crew around. I looked at the television. It was not working. The only program I like to watch on the in-flight TV is the flight path. The program runs throughout the duration of the flight even if I am asleep. Last night abruptly it stopped. Initially I didn’t notice as I was sleeping. When I realised, I noticed the TVs of other passengers. None of the TVs was working. ‘So it’s not just my problem,’ I thought, ‘good! At least I can have a restful sleep because interrupting lights from co-passengers’ TV sets will not bother me.’ I slept. The night seemed bit weird. No co passenger was calling the crew for any type of service as if everyone was enjoying an abnormal deep sleep. This was extremely rare inside a plane.

  Anyway, I decided to ask the reason of the late arrival after the landing. The flight finally landed. I was on the aisle seat, and most of the windows were closed. I tried to take a glimpse of the ground. I couldn’t. The landing was terrible. It seemed as if the runway was full of potholes. Almost all the passengers started abusing words towards the airline and the pilots. It seemed some trainee pilot was landing the plane for the first time in his life, and that too without any guidance. We could never imagine that the runway would be rough. When the plane finally came to a halt, it seemed as if the pilot was forced to apply sudden breaks to avoid the imminent end of the runway.

  ‘Who is running the aircraft?’ a passenger grunted loudly, ‘a pilot or a cab driver?’

  I didn’t say anything but promised myself to demand an explanation from the airlines after landing. Some passengers opened their windows. It was a surprise for everybody. The runway was utterly dark. There was no light from the sky also. I thought, maybe the flight has entered inside a shade immediately after landing as I could figure out there was something like a roof.

  While getting off from the plane, someone else asked a crew what the problem was. His laconic answer was that there was some major technical problem in the flight. The plane has not landed on its destination.

  ‘Which place is this?’ asked the passenger.

  ‘We don’t know, this was an emergency landing.’

  ‘Thank God, we have survived, better late than never.’ I thought. I decided to send an email to my business associates to reschedule the meeting. I even coined the words to describe how we survived a near crash. That would cause considerable sympathy from them. My family was second in my mind at that time. Of course, I will tell my family after sending email to the business associates.

  We were almost certain that our plane had been hijacked. We didn’t fear for our lives. At least I was not afraid. I knew I would be an instant hero among my circle of friends, and I would be telling them stories about the hijack. We all were trying to figure out what the location could be. The Google map on our smart phones was of no help.

  We were accommodated in many caves like structures. The floor, wall and roof all were made up of stones. I was not surprised by this. All my life I was used to staying in five or seven star comforts. I had to accept the situation. What could I do? There was no alternative. Beggars have no choice.

  With initial stress of unexpected landing, all of us forgot one majorly crucial element; that we need food to survive. Passengers started asking the crew about the food. They were genuinely helpless. I suggested going back to the aircraft and bringing some food from there. One crew told boldly that is not possible.

  ‘Why?’ asked another passenger named David who then I came to know that he was from Australia. ‘Have we been hijacked?’

  ‘Possible, but we are not sure,’ replied air hostess Rayhana.

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, ‘Have we been hijacked? I need a complete reply.’ I am a top level executive and behaved as if I am the boss who is demanding a complete reply from a subordinate.

  ‘I am sorry sir,’ she politely replied, ‘I will appreciate if you behave politely. ‘We are as much disturbed as you people. We have also families who must be waiting for us to return safely.’

  I came back to my sense.

  ‘Can we talk to pilots?’ Jimmy, another passenger, asked.

  ‘We don’t know where the pilots are,’ a confused looking male crew named Hamid replied.

  ‘In fact, we all crew are trying to find out the pilots,’ Rayhana explained, ‘but we don’t know where they are.’

  We were all hungry. There was no sign of coming of food. In the back of our mind, we were sure that this was a hijack and the pilots might have been taken hostage by hijackers. Brains were not functioning properly having three hundred plus empty stomachs.

  Finally, four strange looking people arrived with food supplies. They were covered head to toe. Their clothes looked like made up of leaves and creepers. They piled up hundreds of packages wrapped by dark coloured leaves and went away. In our haste to gobble food, we didn’t clearly see those people. The food was awful, but there was no alternative. After completing about three forth of the food, when the hunger was quenched, people murmured about the appearance of those funny looking attendants. Everyone was aware, that talking loudly may provoke them.

  ‘They must be part of the terrorist groups.??
? Ahmed commented.

  ‘How did you know they are terrorists?’ Jimmy asked.

  ‘Have we not been hijacked by the terrorists? Ahmed counter-questioned.

  I guess, none of the three hundred plus passengers and crew have ever encountered with a terrorist. All our so called knowledge is from media only.

  ‘I am hundred percent sure we didn’t land here for some technical emergency,’ Ahmed stressed his point, ‘why are the pilots not with us? Either they are assisting the terrorists, or they have been kept apart from us. This is a terrorist operation.’

  ‘Lower your voice please,’ Jimmy cautioned him as other passengers gave attention to the talks between these two.

  ‘I wonder why these attendants are covered head to toe. That too with strange looking materials.’