THE 'UNIQUE' FINAL TOUCH DOWN..

The Aircraft touched its max height and leveled off. The gentleman unfastened his seat belt and stretched out a bit in his seat. As he was doing that, he noticed that the Passenger next to him was not at much ease with a certain tension seen on his face. He just smiled at him for which the Co-passenger responded and asked him in mild tone, 

“Sir! How much time it takes to reach our place?”
“It's a two and half hr travel, Sir!  Are you traveling for the first time by Air?”

Asked the gentleman..

“Yes! Actually, I thought of going by train.. But there was no time and my people said it's better I reach in time by Flight!”

“Are you feeling comfortable?”

“No…Not like that.. It’s a bit scary to sit here like this!”

By that time, the gentleman understood that the man was tensed up over the safety in flying. Being an Expert in Flight aspects and a Frequent Traveller, having travelled widely to the Corners of the World and enjoyed flying, he wanted to infuse a certain confidence and positive attitude in his Co-passenger.. He smiled and said, 

“Sir! All the Aircraft we regularly travel are quite safe..So much care is taken in building, maintaining and flying the Aircraft that I can, with a 100% confidence say that Air Transport is the safe way of traveling!”

The Co-passenger appeared showing some interest in his talk..

The gentleman continued his talk on the Flight Safety Aspects for some time all along munching a few snacks served to him, as the Co-passenger listened with all attention.. 

"Many safety procedures are followed and many safety precautions.... 

Equally certain stand-bys too are kept ready for any rare failures while in operation....

Again, if you actually go by statics available with us and look into the world Records on Reliability of Flying.... 

All this info should make us ultimately feel that Air Travel is the very safe of mode of transport compared to any other Transport available with us!”

Having thus concluded his talk with an air of pride on his face, the gentleman suddenly looked at his watch and said, 

“Oh! Its nice that we spent almost the journey time talking on Air Safety. It’s time to land now. See, the Aircraft already started descending. We have to fasten our seat belts and make ourselves ready for landing. This is one of the safety requirements during take off, landing and in times of turbulence. Anyhow, I hope you feel better now with all what I told during our travel. That’s where one’s confidence really goes up!”

“Now you can see.. it's coming closer to the ground.. Yeah.. Count down follows.. 4..3..2..1.....Touched down.. See.. So smoothly! Here too the speeds are still quite high.. That's why the Safety Rule says that we should have the seat belt on till the Aircraft comes to complete halt and the glowing sign is switched off. Ok.. Now.. It's over.. We have reached our place.. We are 100% safe now. And here, all this you yourself have seen now with your own eyes. Are you now fully satisfied, Sir?" 

Saying thus the gentleman looked at the Co Passenger with a big smile on his face!

The Aircraft further slowed down, left the main Runway but as it entered the Taxi way came to a quick halt all of a sudden.. There was a certain silence in the Cabin for few minutes and the seat belt signs continued to glow. The Cabin Crew Members moving around started saying to the Passengers, 

"Please keep your seat belts fastened and stay in your seats till further announcement!"

The gentleman for a while couldn't understand what had happened. He noticed in front of him, when one of the Passengers unlocked his belt and made an attempt to stand up, the Hostess quickly said to him, 

"Sir! Please sit down in your seat and keep the seat belt fastened!"

For few minutes, none was knowing what was going on. Absolute silence alone ruled the Cabin for those minutes. The Co-Passenger nervously asked the gentleman,

"Sir! You said the journey is over.. Then, why are we still sitting like this?  Why no one is moving? What's happening?"

For a moment, an unknown fear suddenly gripped the gentleman. It was the usual practice after landing, the Aircraft to move towards the Terminal in few minutes and all busy themselves to move out of the Aircraft with the seat belt signs switched off. But anything like that did not happen in that Scenario. Instead all were made to wait just like that in the mid way without any information.. 

His tension mounted and in no time, the greatest fear gripped him.. 

"Is the Aircraft hijacked? Is it getting diverted to the unknown lands?  What is the fate of the Passengers if that happens now? Else for no reason why the Aircraft had stopped abruptly after landing and all were asked to be in their seats? Why no one is talking????"

For a minute, totally forgetting about his Co-passenger, the gentleman himself started perspiring imagining the worst going to happen..

Soon, the door at the back was opened contrary to the usual front but still none were allowed to get up from their seats..

As the gentleman started shivering in the tense moments that followed, next moment the suspense drama totally unfolded when a Team of Health Professionals rushed in with a stretcher, went to an ailing Passenger some distance away, slowly moved him on to the stretcher and quickly took him out for further Medical Care as all the orderly sitting Passengers never hampered their way!

Subsequently, the seat belt signs were off and the Passengers too were asked to disembark at that point itself and all were further transported to the Arrival Terminal by the Airline buses slowly and safely!