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When my plane was about to collide!

Have you ever travelled when you were very tired and sleepy and all you wanted a comfortable bed to crash?
I have.
I wanted to sleep while waiting in immigration queue. I wanted to sleep while waiting to board. There are many instances when I desperately wanted to doze off.

Talking of sleep or lack of it, reminds me of a small anecdote which I want to share with you all.

I was flying to Thailand. The flight was in the evening and as usual I had my window seat. 🙂

Immediately after our airplane settled above the clouds, I could see the Sun setting. To my disappointment my window pane was very dirty from outside so I was unable to take any photo. But I did not want to let go of having a window seat. I turned back and clicked a few shots through the window behind.

Man! That was some work and then I dozed off !

sky @lemonicks.com

I woke up after a
few hours. I think the captain had made some announcements which woke me up. With groggy eyes, I looked at other passengers; most of them were fast asleep. The plane was shaking and probably passing through a turbulence zone. Rubbing my eyes, I looked out of the window. It was pitch dark.

And suddenly I jumped ! I jumped and I shrieked.

Now I knew why the captain had made that announcement !

Can you believe if I say I saw a small plane flying very parallel to ours? I rubbed my eyes again and the plane was neither slowing down nor changing its direction as if it was participating in a race with us !! I thought the announcement made by the captain must have been to warn us.
In those moments, I thought our planes were going to collide in no time. Like a Bollywood movie, all those bad & sad thoughts came to my mind, which generally ask you to say your last prayers.

But I didn’t give up. I thought it was my duty to inform the irresponsible captain. Perhaps he too was sleeping or else he would have swerved the plane away! I shook my sleeping co-passenger to let me out. He thought I was in urgent need to go to restroom. But when I told him the grave situation, sceptically he leaned over my seat to look out.

And then he laughed out loudly ! I felt pity on him. He had lost his mental balance to realize that these were last moments of his life.
What he told me after that, had made me look the other way in utter embarrassment. Can you guess what he said?

He told me that it was the wing of OUR airplane and NOT another plane.

when my plane was about to collide @lemonicks.com

This photo was taken after the incident. 🙂

My husband Vasu still laughs at my stupidity. Other family members would never know about it (they don’t read my blog). 😀

Note- This is a real incident. 😀

If you want to travel places with me, I suggest you to join me on my Facebook travel page.
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52 thoughts on “When my plane was about to collide!”

  1. Quite an interesting incident. I remember something similar happened to me on my first plane journey to Andaman. Only difference was that I understood before sharing my fear to my co passengers 🙂

  2. My blood pressure went up reading this one. It came down at the end, tho’.
    A gripping tale that was. 🙂
    That’s a lovely picture; the first one.

  3. Manish,
    You know how impatient we women are. 🙂

    And you are granted, it was your first flight. This happened last year when I had flying experience of thousands of miles. 😀

  4. LOL! (Well, we can all laugh about it now, it turned out okay!) 🙂 I’m glad you shared that photo of “the other plane,” because looking at it I can see how you might have mistaken that wingtip for another aircraft in the darkness! You owe your seat-mate a debt of gratitude – if he hadn’t clarified the situation for you, you’d have burst into the cockpit shouting your warning and scared the happy-crappy out of the flight crew! 🙂

    The first photo is lovely, good job figuring out how to getting that shot despite your dirty window. I ALWAYS get stuck with dirty airplane windows.

    I hope your health improves! Have you had your thyroid checked? Take care of yourself!

  5. It was a nice post Nisha. At first I though there was another plane going to collide and you were saved due to the courageous move. The end left me laughing 🙂

    A nice read for the morning.

    Regards,
    Abhilash

  6. Beautiful photo and great story!
    I love that you thought it was your duty to inform the captain – forget radar and all those instruments in the cockpit… 😉

  7. That made me laugh, what a great anecdote! Sometimes the sense of drama from one’s dreams bleeds into real life for those first waking moments! Love it!

  8. Funny story. Your mind can certainly play tricks on you, especially after just waking up. Your seatmate must have done a pretty serious eye-roll when you turned back around!

  9. Ha ha better to feel a little foolish than for it to have been the real deal! I’ve sometimes seen planes in the distance and it always feels too close!

  10. ha ha its very funny ! I kept laughing at your innocence.

    But its better to be careful as you were, than to be sorry and get collided. 😀

  11. Omg!! That is too funny!! I would have been so embarrassed, but glad that we weren’t actually going to crash into another plane. I’ll definitely be looking twice the next time I’m in a window seat! 😉

  12. Oh haha!!! I was so scared there for you for a second! But I don’t blame you, you had just woken up and it’s difficult to function in the couple of minutes after having woken from sleep!! Thankyou for the laugh though!!

  13. Hahaha, if I were you, I’d blame that faux pas on my somnolence and fatigue. But I can imagine how embarrassing that would’ve been! And what if you had reached the captain somehow and told him this – would’ve been a joke for everyone 😉

  14. When I saw the title of this blog post, I was not sure I wanted to read it. I like to be oblivious to the risks of flying. After all, I do have my private pilot’s license. I am sure it must have been a major shock to see another plane close up in the window. But so relieved when you realized it was just the plane wing. I remember my first flight. The flaps on the wing moved so much. I was sure the plane was falling apart!

  15. This kind of sounds like a Twilight Zone episode (there a monster eating the wing….) I have had some crazy, half-baked thoughts when I woke from some awkward sleeps. I could imagine thinking the same thing when I woke up and looked out the window.

  16. This is terrible: Initially, I even didn’t want to read the post as I read the title and thought, I don’t need a story that makes me afraid of flying! How can you do that to me?! 😫😆 Good, that everything was fine – and always will 😍

  17. This is pretty common to see other planes flying nearby. They often look close but can be miles apart. It can be shocking for new travelers.

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