Can we pretend that airplanes land safely back on the ground…!

Breaking News: Air India Express flying from Dubai to Mangalore crashed and caught on fire while landing on the Mangalore airport. People all across the world stunned, shocked, agitated, disturbed, horrified, and daunted… Boeing 737-800 was carrying 166 people from which 158 were burned alive and only 8 survived. My heart aches for the families who lost their loved ones. My deepest condolences to all of them…

The plane crashed into the thick forested valley off the runway after slamming through a boundary wall. Our Mangalore airport falls under a ‘special’ category. By special I mean, airports which are not entirely safe while landing and taking off. Also, this particular airport is sitting on a humungous forest and deep valleys. Anyhow, of course we can bypass that because our politicians have all the excuses in the world to save their gaddi. This is a symbol of corruption and negligence. At one point our national airlines used to be India’s boast to the rest of the world – we were so proud of it! It was ranked in the Top Ten airlines of the world. And now, I feel disgraced and disheartened by this disaster. This crash is considered the most disastrous in the India’s aviation history. Some of the stories on TOI have made my blood boil… Our so-called-democracy has humiliated us completely. So many innocent lives lost, so many dreams shattered, so much of pain, so many words left unspoken, so much turbulence, so much provocation, so much… This collision left nothing but remorse for every living soul.

Just like many disasters, this one was short-lived too. The breaking news came down from Page 1 to other stories. Bravo to our media! If the saying is correct that, ‘a media can make or break news’, then why not make a much bigger hoopla of this news? Why not force the politicians to take stricter actions towards corruption? Why not dig deep? Why not? But wait, that’s not how it works here… Air India crew members went on strike today [Tuesday 25 May 2010]. Reason being, Air India’s decision to defer salary payments. Bravo to our politics! How do ‘mango people’ survive in this democracy? I wonder… Oh well, hats off to all ‘mango people’ who helped the survivors from the burning flames in Mangalore. Hats off to the three sisters who lost their [pilot] husband in three major Air India crashes: 1979 and 2000. The perfect scapegoat for any crash is the pilot… if he’s alive nail him; if he’s dead blame him! This is the painful truth. Mano ya na mano!

My heart goes out to all the families who lost their loved ones in the crash. Rab Rakha…!