Excess Baggage

An article in yesterday's newspaper has me rolling on the floor laughing. "AI faces criminal action for carrying extra passengers" the headline screamed. I was intrigued; this was definitely a first for air travel. I read further, apparently the AI aircraft flying the Mumbai-Mangalore sector that lost a door on May 5 was having more trouble because allegedly it had three extra passengers. Two sitting on the foldable chairs actually meant for the cabin crew during landing and takeoff and a lady was accommodated in the cockpit no less!!!

This got me thinking about the time when air travel was crazily expensive (this was the time before Capt. Gopinath changed the way the common man travelled), train travel was for the lucky few who had contacts among touts and private buses ruled. Buses used to invariably be fully booked and there were still passengers who were willing to shell extra bucks to get from A to B. Such passengers were accommodated if they were willing to sit on cans, foldable chairs or next to the driver. AI sure seems to proud of our heritage and history. No doubt the powers that be were of the opinion that taking a page out history would help them tide over the financial crunch they find themselves in!!!

Jut had an afterthought, did the door really fall of because the aircraft started moving while still attached to an aerobridge or was it because the chairless cabin crew strapped themselves to it during take off ??