SECRET CORNER OF THANATOS

After this experience, I’ll think a lot of times before taking Qatar Airways as my choice of airlines to go back home next time.

My  entire journey was supposed to be 24 hours, including my flight from  KLIA to

Doha

,

Doha

to

Moscow

,and from

Moscow

to my hostel in

NIzhny Novgorod

.

But instead, it took me 36 hours to finally reach my destination.

The process wasn’t all about waiting…it was also about conflict between the passenger and the crew, among the crew, and most importantly the flight itself….

The flight from KLIA to

Doha

at 745 am was a smooth one.

We reached

Doha

at 1030 am local time, about

3 pm

at

Malaysia

that time….

The next flight to

Moscow

was supposed to be 1300.

When it was time to board, something happened. We did not know what was it back then. But the airport workers just leaved us there clueless…waiting like an idiot…for about half an hour…

When they finally came back, they switched our gate to the next flight, to Venna. They couldn’t be bothered more to tell us what happened to our flight. There were no announcement saying that our flight was delayed.

Then somebody told us that the flight would be at 230pm.

We waited for about an hour without any clue on what’s happening. Then some Russians went to the office to complaint. They ended up coming back telling us that the flight will be at 330pm. But according to them , when they complain, the workers there were laughing at them. And when the Russians was angry and ask for their names, they asked them not to bother, because everything on their name tag is in Arabics….then they laughed at them again…..how rude is that!!

So while waiting, I used the wireless connection to chat online and surfing the net. ( the connection was damn slow)

When it was 330 pm, no news, announcement, or whatsoever. Not even a single worker was there. Then a big group of passengers went down to the office to complain again, pressuring them. Then they say the flight will be at 2 hours later. (530 pm)

Many were frustrated, but they can’t do anything but to wait.

So finally at 530 pm, we finally board on plane.

The captain announced that there were hydraulic leak in the plane. But it was all fixed . so we were told not to worried.

The plane took off after everything was checked.

After a half an hour flying on our way to

Moscow

, the captain again announced “ we are sorry to announce that the auto-pilot is not working. So we are heading back to

Doha

now.”

Of course, you can’t expect less than the whole plane panicking. The Arabic lady in front of me cried…she and her friends were all panicked and put the hands together and prayed… you can’t blame her. Her flight to

Moscow

was supposed to be 2 days ago. They delayed her flight until now and this is happening. This is gonna leave a serious phobia in her man….

The steward and stewardess didn’t do any good either. They moved up and down the cabin with fast and panicked pace. Their forehead was obviously written “ you should start to panic now as you might die” instead of doing their job trying to comfort the passengers.

When the plane finally landed, everyone clapped their hand. It sounded kinda sarcastic hinting that it’s a surprise that you(the captain) can land the plane safely without crashing when you can’t fly on air without auto pilot.

The pilot makes another announcement : “ we are sorry for the delay. The engineers are trying their very best to fix the problem. It was only a minor problem. But as usual  we are doing this for your safety. Please be seated while our engineers work on the auto pilot”

This would obviously do nothing to calm the passengers now. Many of them stood up restlessly trying to find out what’s really happening. Others are insisting on leaving the plane, totally lost their trust in this airline…

“ Attention please. We know there have been some problems in our flight and we are very sorry for it. We know you have all the rights to leave this plane. But please trust me and  my crew to bring you to your  destination .”

after 5 minutes

“ Again we would like to apologize for the delay. The problem is being fixed. Now the engineers are refilling the fuel. Please wait for another 30 minutes. If you wish to leave the plane, we will need extra 1 hour before we can take off again”

I figure out the extra time is for taking out the check-in luggage of the passengers leaving.

Of course, many of them leaved, despite everything. Those who stayed is probably  those who can’t afford to wait for the next flight, can’t afford to pay for extra ticket, or have seen worse scenario than this.

The worst thing is, 3 stewardess left the plane, taking their hand luggage off….walking across the cabin, passing every passenger with their head down. Before that somebody heard some arguments at the back between the captain and the stewardess…

This is not a good sign. If even the crew doesn’t trust it’s own captain, how do they expect the passengers to trust the captain? This obviously brings down the morale of the whole crew . we could see how unprofessional they are. They failed completely as a team.

After some time, the captain says “ what you have just seen was 3 of our crew just left the plane. It’s pass their flight time schedule now and it’s illegal for them to fly across zones on air now…”

That might be true…but it sounded so unconvincing.

So those who left the plane left, and those who stayed could only trust  the captain and put their life into his hands.

When the plane took off again, I was somewhat sleeping. I was waken up once for dinner, and once when the plane is landing.

When the plane landed in

Moscow

, everyone clapped again. This time, it’s somewhat more sincere.

When I left KLIA airport, I was kinda sad and very reluctant to go back. But then I was too tired to feel homesick after this incident.

We pity the van driver who was supposed to bring us back to our hostel in nizhny. He waited for almost 8 hours…and thankfully he didn’t charge us extra for that.

The way back to our hostel was shorter than expected. It felt safe at first. But then upon reaching, the driver received a phone call, a bad news I supposed. Then, he started drifting the car. It was kind of a thrill during the last 20minutes. There were a few emergency breaks now and then, but we managed to reach out hostel nevertheless.

All in all, I reached safely.

I  salute the captain and the crew who stayed back with us all the way during the flight….they were indeed brave and dedicated. But nevertheless, I will never take

Qatar

airlines again. ( unless there are Absolutely no other choices)\

And I believe those who were on the plane QR 0866 that day think the same way too….