Kid in the Cockpit
Appropriateness Mindset
23rd March, 1994. Aeroflot 593, from Russian International Airlines, started its journey from Moscow to Hong Kong. The relief pilot, Yaroslav Kudrinsky, was on duty in the cockpit. He was taking his teen-aged daughter Yana and his teen-aged son Eldar on their first international flight.
On their first flight, Yaroslav wanted to impress upon his children. He asked them to come to the cockpit, while he was on duty. As expected by Yaroslav, his daughter Yana and son Eldar really got excited to know that they could visit the cockpit. As they entered, they saw their dad was sitting on the left seat, while the co-pilot was sitting in the right seat of the cockpit. They were flabbergasted to see the Audio alarms, Blinking buttons, Confusing controls and Display dashboards flashing in multiple colors. Yaroslav was very proud to see the excited faces of his children. He was not yet satisfied with that.
He wanted to impress upon them further. He offered his pilot seat to Yana first. Was it legal as per air safety regulations? No. Not at all. But who cared? Yaroslav decided to give an unique experience to his loved ones.
Yana asked, “Me? Me at the pilot’s seat?”.
“Yes, dear, go and sit there. No problem. Go ahead” was the reply from the pilot.
Yana took the pilot’s left front seat. A picture was taken immediately by Eldar. Was that all? No. Yaroslav asked his daughter to hold the control column and navigate the plane. Yana was thrilled to hold the control column and navigate the plane. It gave her the impression that she was really turning the plane, though she had no control of the aircraft. Actually the autopilot was running the flight. An autopilot is a combination of various systems so that flight can fly without any manual intervention.
While Yana was in the seat of the pilot, Eldar was eagerly waiting for his turn. In a few minutes, Yana got up and Eldar occupied the seat. Eldar was so excited like any other teen-aged boy. Unlike his sister, he did not gently hold the control column but applied force to the control column. What nobody knew was that by doing this, he partially disconnected the autopilot. The flight computer switched the plane’s ailerons to manual control while maintaining control over the other flight systems. The plane did not send an audio signal warning, which normally happens in any Russian designed planes. Actually the pilots are more familiar with the Russian planes. Of course an indicator light did come on. In the excitement with the kids in the cockpit, everyone failed to notice the warning light.
Everything was smooth for a few minutes, but something started going crazy after sometime. The first to notice a problem was Eldar, who observed that the flight path indicator started showing a new flight path.
“Dad. See here. Dad this gauge is showing something different”
The predicted path on the flight path indicator was a 180 degree turn. This confused the pilots and made them clueless.
Soon the plane started banking past a 20 degree angle. In less than a minute, the inclination was 30 degree angle and very soon it was a 45-degree angle. This was steeper than it was designed for. This increased the gravitational force on the pilots and the crew making their bodies feel much heavier than usual.
Yaraslav shouted, “So… Get up quickly… I need to take control. Son. Come on… do fast..”
But Eldar could not get up from his seat because of his heaviness. Even Yaroslav could not pull him out and take the controls. Now the plane was almost in a vertical ascent. In the meantime, the co-pilot managed to get the plane into reverse direction. This reduced the gravitational force on the pilots and enabled the Captain to move Eldar from his seat and take the controls. Though he and his co-pilot did regain control, their altitude by then was too low to recover. The plane went into a nosedive and crashed on a mountain at high speed, killing all aboard. Yes all the 75 passengers including the crew were killed. The wreckage was located on a remote hillside approximately 25 kilometers from Siberia.
That was a documentary based on a real incident by National Geography. The documentary concluded with the credits and showed “The End”
Where and when did I see this documentary? It was year 2005! Suresh Babu and myself were tired and sitting at the Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand before boarding our flight from Bangkok to Chennai. Yes. After completing our 2 months hectic project and our 2 hours of window shopping at the duty-free shops, we were relaxing in the recliners. We were sitting pretty close to a giant LCD monitor. The screen started showing the logo of National Geographic, a documentary film was about to be screened. Yes; We were watching the documentary titled “A kid in the cockpit” just before boarding the plane. Imagine the plight of the passengers watching that horrific documentary just before alighting the flight.
Just when we were about to board the flight, Suresh tapped my shoulder. “Sundar, did you see the teen-aged boy standing first in the queue?
I turned and saw the boy. “My God!. He exactly resembled the pilot who had just stepped into the flight!”
After boarding the flight, I was relaxing and pondering. “Was it appropriate for the Aeroflot pilot to bring his children into the cockpit? Was it appropriate to given them the control? When I thought of the term “appropriateness” I was also wondering, “Was it appropriate to screen this sad documentary related to a flight accident, when passengers were waiting to alight a flight? Who was the person responsible to screen this documentary in the passenger hall of an airport?
Appropriateness is an important attribute to followed in our daily life? A word mentioned at inappropriate time, or an action performed inappropriately can turnaround the situations. Even the scenario would become insane or weird.
Stadium after Thiagaraj
In 2010, I went to New Delhi for the ‘Petrotech 2010’ conference. Ramsingh, a taxi driver from Noida, did not seem to be familiar with New Delhi roads, but was desperately trying to locate my destination, Vignyan Bhavan.
En route, one place that caught my attention was the Thyagaraj Sports Complex. Thyagaraj seemed like a Tamil name. But who is this Thiagaraj, on whose name a huge sports complex is built. I know Danraj Pillai, who is known for his hockey. But I was wondering who really Thyagaraj was. It never crossed my mind who he was. Well the answer lies in seeking Google help. I was shocked when I found out the answer.
The sports complex was built for the Commonwealth Games. Whoever built it, it was named after Satguru Thyagaraja Swamy, one of the Sangeetha trinities from Tamilnadu and not after any sports legends or national leaders.
Oh my God! What has he got to do with sports? He was born almost 200 years ago? What is his connect with sports? Even if they have decided to honor the musical trinity, why not the full name of Thyagaraja? Why Thyagaraj, like the modern days cine-stars Sathyaraj and Sibiraj? Who was the decision maker in this? Why no one questioned this? Was there any appropriateness in choosing a name for a sports complex?
Friends, when say something or do something, let us step back a bit and see if there is an appropriateness for the situation. If not, better we keep quiet. Let us remembers the old adage, “Something is better than nothing; Nothing is better than Non-sense”.
Five Tips to Improve Appropriate Mindset
· While forwarding a WhatsApp message, please check if the message is appropriate for the group.
. When you want to suggest a radical suggestion in a meeting, ponder for a while and see if the suggestion is going to be appropriate.
· When you hear a death news from a friend or relative and when you visit their home how would you behave? (No embarrassment for the grieved ones by your inappropriate acts)
. When you want to dress-up, have you checked, if that dress looked appropriate for the occasion? (Don’t be an odd-man out)
. When you plan for a party, please see to that the menu is appropriate for the event and the profile of the attendees. (No- no for a menu comprising Samosa, Rose milk, Pepsi-Coke, Potato Chips, Ice Cream, Banana for the birthday party of a tiny tot)
