Monument to Love.
The lazy fan dangling from the ceiling of the VCR (Visual Control Room) at the top of the ATC Tower in Ahmedabad didn’t seem to be having much effect on the temperature of the airspace beneath it. Certainly it wasn’t cooling me down as I reflected on my experience of the past 24 hours. Outside it was forty degrees Celsius and down below on the stinking hot ramp was our B757, loaded up with passengers and fuel ready to depart for Agra - an Indian Air Force base in the north of the country. I knew the AC packs were working overtime to keep the cabin cool. Slowly I turned my gaze towards the ATC Supervisor again, he was speaking to me.
“…but Captain, you and your aeroplane must be going to Agra. You have filed a flightplan and you have got an ATC slot-time to meet and we cannot be avoiding this…” he tailed off as he realised his words were having no effect.
“…Agra is Military’s Airport and this weather report is not available. It is classified secret information…”
My voice was very controlled as I replied to him.
“Mister Pradesh, we cannot depart from Ahmedabad without the latest weather reports for Agra and I have stated this several times. We diverted here yesterday, because we could not land at Agra due to very poor visibility. We could not make an instrument approach, how do I know that this will not happen again today?”
He was not happy I could tell. Silly Englishman won’t get out of my face.
“Captain, I am already telling that Agra is Military’s Airport and this weather report is not available. It is classified secret information and we cannot get it for you — they are very strict with the secret informations”.
Now the latest excuse they gave me was that they were too busy — the B757 was the only live movement on the ramp below. I looked again at Mr Pradesh and the assistant who was sitting next to him at the Tower controller’s position. I decided to try another tack. I suggested, “Look why don’t you get your assistant to telephone Agra Airbase to ask them for the weather report on the telephone?” At which point the assistant picked up the phone, turned away from us both as if he was having a very important conversation and Mr Pradesh immediately came back with — “Can’t you see he is too busy!?”
I was staggered and shook my head as I responded, “But he wasn’t busy until I suggested it –he wasn’t even on the ‘phone!”
I sat down on the scruffy, rickety old couch at the back of the VCR and said, “Well it looks like we’re staying then! I say, any chance of a cup of tea old chap?” I smiled at him in what I thought was a disarming manner.
In reality the fun and games had commenced in Antalya, Turkey two nights before, where myself and the crew had picked up the jet. We were the relief crew, taking over in the middle of the night for a long distance charter flight from Gatwick to Agra. Why Agra? Well it’s just down the road from the Taj Mahal one of the architectural wonders of the world and a huge draw for tourists to northern India.
“Please tell the Captain there’s still lots of ice on the right wing…”
So in the middle of the night, we joined the aircraft on a snowy ramp in Turkey and ordered the de-icing trucks. There was plenty of snow and ice all over the airframe from taxying in through a heavy snowshower and deicing took a while, but then the completion certificate finally reached the flightdeck. We were eager to get going, it was another long sector to India and the turnround seemed to be taking ages. Finally we called for push and start and my young colleague in the right-hand seat started to run the overhead panel scan ready for engine start. He was hesitant as this was one of his first line training flights, so I had to be patient. On the two jumpseats we had a travelling engineer and a ‘Safety Pilot’ — another First Officer who monitored and supported the FO under training. It was a full house and it was going to be a long night.
It was shortly after the second engine had been started, that we had a call from the cabin intercom and the Safety Pilot responded for us as were still busy watching the engine instruments as the RB211 stabilised, “don’t forget the engine anti ice” I said to remind our trainee to turn this on now. Half an ear was listening to the brief conversation on the interphone and I was not impressed when I heard, “Please tell the Captain there’s still lots of ice on the right wing…”
Immediately, I asked the SP to pop back into the cabin to check through the windows and it was an anxious wait while he did so. He arrived back in the flightdeck.
“Yes she’s right, one of the passengers noticed it and there’s loads of it still there!” He looked disappointed. My professional façade probably slipped a bit with my verbal response, “Oh Bugger! We’ll have to go back on stand!”
After a brief explanation to the cabin and negotiations with Air Traffic — we arrived back on stand, shutdown the engines and waited for the deicing team to come back. It all seemed to take a very long time, but finally we were airborne (ice free) and climbing towards the Jewel in the Crown. If the weather forecast for destination (Agra) was not good, the number one alternate airport (Delhi) was much worse — down to 200 metres in fog. So during the preflight planning we ensured that we loaded fuel for the other two alternate airports too — better safe than sorry… The second alternate was Jaipur, a small regional airport to the west of Agra and the third alternate was Ahmedabad in Gujarat province — rather a long way away from Agra to the southwest. I remember saying to the other two pilots at the preflight briefing, “We’ll take the fuel for the third alternate anyway, but I’ve never heard of anyone needing to go there”. Famous last words!
Flying through the night, we started our descent just after dawn and coincidentally when the early morning mist and fog in that part of the world is usually at its worst. On the radio we heard that Delhi was closed due to fog — 75 metres visibility and no relief in sight. We asked Delhi ATC several times for the Agra weather, but they had difficulty getting it (a top secret military base of course…) So we checked Jaipur weather to make sure our number two alternate was still open — yes it was fine; we continued our descent. Cleared descent to flight level one five zero and then handed over to Agra approach. On contacting the Agra military controller, he immediately requested our endurance and sent us to take up the hold. Hmmm… this is novel, I thought. Holding at fifteen thousand feet is an unusual procedure — then it became clear why. The visibility was too poor for us to commence the SRA (Surveillance Radar Approach) and the minima for this type of approach is very high. It was interesting to note while flying our big circles in the sky that we could actually catch a glimpse of the runways every now and again vertically, but the slant visibility was really bad and not getting any better.
We checked the fuel and I asked the Safety Pilot to get the latest situation with Jaipur on the second radio — Delhi ATIS still gave 75 metres and they were closed. Judging by his facial expression when he handed me the note of the Jaipur weather, I knew it was not good news. JAIPUR CLOSED — NIL PARKING DUE DELHI DIVERSION AIRCRAFT! We had been holding for around 20 minutes now and the weather was still bad below — hmmm only Ahmedabad left then… I looked at the computer flightplan yet again and asked him to get the latest Met report for Ahmedabad — he came back with the news that the visibility was okay 3000 metres or so, but now it was decreasing — Yikes!
There was then a quick discussion between all of us in the flightdeck and the decision was made, I said sharply to the FO, “Tell them we want a climb. Direct Track Ahmedabad!” As he was calling ATC on VHF 1, I was reprogramming the Flight Management Computer for our new destination — hmmm… just enough fuel, but let’s hope the weather holds…
The radar to ILS approach at Ahmedabad was fine and we then taxied in to a very large empty ramp to be greeted by Indian bureaucracy at its finest — three hours to get us and the passengers through immigration and then on our way to hotels. At the end of all this the crew needed a minimum 16 hours rest period before we could report for duty again, which brought us to the following afternoon and the stand-off with ATC.
By the time I sat down on the scruffiest couch of the Indian Subcontinent, I had spent the best part of two hours trying to get the weather briefing for Agra without success. They gave me everything else including the flightplans, weather charts, fuel receipts, handling and parking invoices to verify and sign for and various copies of the passenger manifest. Apparently they all wanted to keep the Agra weather a secret on behalf of the Indian Air Force! After a cup of very dubious tea and several firm statements from me that I was not moving and “We like it here in Ahmedabad, we had a lovely curry buffet last night and I think we’ll be staying another night!” Eventually Mr Pradesh gave in. He called Agra on the secret phoneline and I spoke to the airfield Met Officer myself and got the latest actual — it was good enough to go.
As we made our initial approach, Agra ATC took us right past the Taj Mahal at quite low altitude and the sight alone was worth waiting for. On the small dusty civilian ramp, we bade farewell to our passengers and then waited to welcome onboard the homebound holidaymakers who had been delayed a day and a half. I made the welcome onboard PA in the cabin centre aisle with the microphone so that all the passengers could see me. Always best to give the bad news face to face.
“Ladies and Gentlemen welcome onboard and we apologise most sincerely for the delayed arrival of our aircraft which was supposed to come yesterday. Believe me we really tried to get here, but the bad visibility defeated us. We’ll be on our way to London shortly, but please spare a thought for your crew who do feel rather hard done by. We had to divert to Ahmedabad in Gujarat province which is dry — so after our extra long 16 hour duty yesterday we’ve had over 24 hours with no beer!”
© James McBride
