First-person Account: My First Thought Was, It Could Have Been Me

The night before I was supposed to board my flight to Ahmedabad, I was watching a series on Netflix. In one of the scenes, the protagonists are seated in a plane. It suddenly hits turbulence and is about to crash. People are screaming and crying, falling and crashing. One of the protagonists rushes to the cockpit and says: 바카라�Mark, remember you are not alone.바카라� She hopes that when the black box is eventually retrieved, her recorded voice is heard by her husband and daughter.

It was a sci-fi, so we were not looking for logic. 바카라�What would you do if the flight you are in is about to crash?바카라� my friend who had stayed over that night, asked me. 바카라�Most definitely I will not rush to the cockpit! Probably I will go numb with fear and die before the flight eventually crashes!바카라� I said. Yes. We had this conversation. And then we talked some more about all this. We joked and we laughed. We shouldn바카라�t have. Why jinx things, she said, and we slept. 

I don바카라�t like flights. And I am not a fan of early morning flights. This wasn바카라�t technically a morning one, the scheduled departure was 11:40 AM바카라�it was delayed by 20 minutes바카라�but, still, not my kind of flight as I am not at all a morning person. While we were on the tarmac, a young couple, nonchalantly, started making reels. He filmed her, she filmed him. Some people found the whole thing silly. 바카라�How stupid of them to do all this when we are about to board,바카라� said a man to his wife. Such incidents and exchanges during flights keep me entertained as I mostly travel solo.    

I always take the window seat. No matter how much I have to pay. Seated next to me was an elderly couple바카라�uncle next to me, aunty next to him. The air hostess politely told the passengers to pay attention to the safety instructions. No one was bothered. The flight finally took off at 12. Before the take off, the pilot apologised for the delay. 바카라�The flight was parked in the open for about 45 minutes. The air-conditioning system required longer than usual to cool off the plane바카라�s body. Now it바카라�s safe to fly,바카라� he said. My mind somehow picked the word 바카라�safe바카라�. 

After the take off, I started playing 바카라�Goods Sort바카라� on my mobile바카라�an extremely silly game that helps me beat flight boredom. The uncle kept peeping into my mobile once in a while; aunty was occupied watching something religious on her mobile. Aunty took out cookies from her purse. Two were shared with me. The ice was broken. Stories were exchanged. In the end, the uncle said: 바카라�Thank you, for listening. No one listens to old people. My children and grand-children don바카라�t have time for us.바카라� Old age is such a lonely stage, I thought. I brushed that intense thought aside. I diverted my mind to think about the mom-cooked food I was going to have upon reaching. 

The flight landed. Since the elderly couple required wheelchair assistance, we were the last ones to alight. A little ahead, I bumped into him again, on the aerobridge. I said bye, he said goodbye. I don바카라�t like the word 바카라�goodbye바카라�. To me, it means goodbye forever. 

I started walking. And then I paused a second. Something felt weird. I felt something had happened somewhere. I couldn바카라�t figure out what. When I emerged from the aerobridge, I saw hundreds of passengers who were waiting to board and were on the other side of the glass partition looking at something some distance away. Some were taking videos on their mobiles. They all looked concerned. I saw black smoke. There are industries around. I thought some industrial accident must have happened and proceeded to book my cab.   

While I was in the cab, my sister called. Dead serious. We never use this tone. She asked me if was safe and far from the airport area. I knew something was wrong. Initial reports had started coming in. Of the crash. I thought a small passenger plane must have crashed. My tired mind was not able to register a big tragedy. On my way, everyone was looking in the direction of the smoke, perplexed, confused. When I reached home, my family looked extremely relieved after seeing me. The news had started coming in. It was a big tragedy. Massive. I charged my mobile for a bit and left for the crash site.

While approaching the site, I saw dozens of ambulances and fire brigades. Those blaring sirens numbed my mind. We had to walk some distance. I could not breathe. The air was filled with black smoke. People were distributing masks. I remembered I had one in my bag. My eyes had started watering because of the fumes and I had not even reached the site yet. 

And there it was, the gigantic wreckage. I could see hundreds of rescue workers, engaged in different operations. There was panic and chaos. Suddenly three people crossed me, carrying something. That바카라�s when I saw the first body. Completely charred. I saw about 60 later.

The debris was strewn all over. Everything had turned to ashes. But there were remains바카라�remains of the flight, of passengers on board, who had just taken off and were looking forward to their journey to London. A seat belt, a shoe, an oxygen mask, remains of baggage, strips of medication, burnt clothes, a wheel, portion of the wing with the logo. 

And then I stepped on something. Maybe or maybe not, but it probably was a piece of flesh. That바카라�s when I broke down a little. I went near the compound wall some distance away and stood there for 15 minutes. Alone. Silent. Everything around me went a little blur, like a slow-motion movie. My mind could not process anything. I was emotionally numb. It could have been me. Or any of my loved ones. I felt angry. How is this fair? No one deserves to die such a painful death. 

After I composed myself, I was able to function. I was able to reach the main crash site. I saw everything. My mind was constantly taking notes. I felt no emotions after that. But I know that the image of the crash site will continue to haunt me for a long, long time. As I saw the sun set this evening, I prayed. For the departed souls. And their families who got no chance to say goodbye to their loved one. Little did they know, it was goodbye forever.