Story: After the scare, flight delay

I went out yesterday to get some "color" for this story, a woeful travelers' tale. Most of what I got was cut for lack of space. Fortunately, I have this blog, on which I can post whatever occurs to me.

Here is my dispatch from deep inside Le Meridien Hotel, New Delhi:

Anne-Marie Guillet could have done without the last two days of her Indian vacation. The 55-year-old Frenchwoman was among the 241 passengers who on Thursday evacuated an Air Mauritius flight that caught fire when a bird flew into its wheel. She spent Friday shuttling between Le Meridien Hotel and the Delhi airport after a second flight was canceled due to mechanical trouble.

“I really do like India,” said Guillet, who spent two weeks touring Rajasthan and is now heading home to Reunion Island. “But I really want to go back to my country.”

After Thursday’s emergency evacuation, some passengers waited more than four hours for their luggage before buses escorted them to Le Meridien. They received phone calls at 1:30 a.m. Friday telling them to return to the airport for an early morning flight. They then spent two hours waiting on the plane before officials told them the flight had been canceled.

“We waited, we waited and we waited,” Guillet said Friday afternoon. “Now we don’t know if we can take another plane.”

Ratnesh Verma, one of 90 HDFC Standard Life Insurance employees headed to Mauritius for a holiday, spent Friday resting and nursing cuts sustained while sliding down the emergency escape chute during Thursday’s evacuation. He said his family has encouraged him not to board any more planes.

“They say, ‘If this type of thing keeps happening, then why risk your life?’” he said. “But it is a part of life. If you worry about this type of thing, you will be living in fear.”

So Verma joined the scores of bleary-eyed travelers who gathered in front of Le Meridien early Friday evening. With luggage in hand, they boarded the buses and left for a third trip to the airport.