From
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...,prtpage-1.cms
From the Times of India
'Hijacked' pilot leaves his passengers grounded
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2005 11:52:29 PM ]
Surf 'N' Earn -Sign innow
MUMBAI: About a dozen Indian Airlines passengers have been stranded on Agatti island in Lakshadweep for since the pilot who operated the only flight to this archipelago suddenly vanished on Saturday.
He was apparently poached by a newly launched airline.
Call it the other face of the booming Indian aviation sector.
On Tuesday, that small group of IA passengers comprising scientists, advertising executives, tourists and professionals, waited expectantly on Agatti island for the second consecutive day, hoping that an IA Dornier would show up to fly them back to Cochin.
But there was no sign of the aircraft.
Said Nishtha Mehta Balivada, an advertising executive, "We don't know whether any flight will come at all."
Cut off from the outside world -- with no internet connection, no newspapers, and fitful telephone lines -- the stranded passengers have been left with little by way of help.
"From Wednesday, the five vegetarians in the group will have to survive on coconut water as the vegetarian food provisions on this small island have run out," she added.
For these passengers, the ordeal began on Saturday, the day they took the IA flight from Cochin to Agatti.
The flight landed on Agatti -- the only island in Laskhwadeep which has an airstrip -- at about 11.30 am and in 15 minutes, the group was to fly to its final destination, Kavaratti island, on a government helicopter.
"The helicopter did not turn up as it also does medical rounds," said Balivada. It didn't turn up on Sunday, Monday, then Tuesday.
"We were put up at the only beach resort on the island and on Monday all of us decided to fly back to Cochin," said Balivada.
That's when they learnt that the Indian Airlines flight which brought them to this island was playing truant. "The local IA officials told us that the pilot, one Capt Chowdhury, had gone missing," she said.
The stranded passengers were told that Capt Chowdhury had not reported at Indian Airlines' Cochin office as he had gone to Bangalore and joined another airline there.
Jagannath Reddy, a scientist from the Institute of Ocean Technology, who has been flying frequently with his colleagues to Agatti and Kavaratti to work on a desalination plant project, said, "In the last three months, we have been stranded thrice.
Earlier, it was for one day each, now I don't know for how long." He added angrily, "They should call it Chowdhury Airlines and not Indian Airlines."
The scientist alleged that the Cochin-Agatti IA flights had often been at this commander's mercy.
An IA spokesperson said that the flights could not be operated due to bad weather. "The pilot has not left Indian Airlines," he noted.
IA will try to operate a flight on June 25. But sources from Cochin confirmed that Capt Chowdhury had on Monday submitted his resignation to the IA office in Chennai.
"A month back, he wanted leave as a family member was ailing, but his request was refused," said the source. The pilot then put in his papers.
"The IA officials did not budge and told him that he would come back, like the many others who had left before him," said the source.
After a few days, IA officials got in touch with him and pleaded with him to return. "Capt Chowdhury simply loved that Dornier aircraft.
"He treated it like his child and was so happy to return," the source added.
But matters between him and IA officials soured again last week and on Monday, he put in his papers, leaving the passengers stranded.
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