Madurai to Chennai - Scary Jetlite Experience

Over the past several years, I have become quite the frequent flyer, more so than I ever would have thought given the history of my fear of flying. Last year I clocked many flights, and perhaps the fear waned due to the sheer quantity of air travel.

However, during extreme turbulence I can definitely lose it. The worst I ever experienced was on a flight from Madurai to Chennai: it was monsoon season and the large plane bobbed up and down and in every direction possible, like a 360-degree roller coaster. With each dip, knock, and bump, passengers would gasp and some would scream. Thank heaven I had had a couple of Scotch shots before boarding the aircraft. But nevertheless, panic was about to set in.

I had to ensure that my inflatable life vest is in place before lowering myself halfway into the crash position. Of course, I try to pretend that I’m searching for something in my backpack that I've placed under the seat in front of me but I’m really just getting ready for the inevitable impact. I know that airplanes themselves are engineered to take a remarkable amount of punishment, including stress limit criteria for both positive and negative G-loads; but this vibration is kick ass!

I was trying to keep cool but I can feel my adrenaline rising when the plane dropped a good couple of meters  A few girls behind me started screaming as the plane began to shake violently, Ten minutes later, there was a girl having a slight panic attack in the seat behind me. Someone was crying a few rows behind. We were still shaking violently; you could feel the plane rolling left and right (or was that just my imagination?). A woman (I later found out that she was a Fashion Designer) was cursing her man loudly to have chosen Jet Lite :)

Slowly, I started gaining sense and what really helped me may sound a bit morbid, and dramatic. I made sure I called my wife before the flight (thinking last words) and then I just decided, I've lived a good life, better than most of the 6 billion on this Earth. Knowing the pilot doesn't want to crash either, I was able to reality check myself and just cope. I wasn't willing to give up travel, so I just had to get over it.

The turbulence continued to escalate so that the pilot called for the flight attendants to buckle up and suspend all cabin service. I was seated in a bulkhead seat, and on this airplane the stewardesses had to seek safety on fold-down seats directly in front of me.

Gone were their syrupy smiles, which were replaced with undisguisable expressions of abject fear. One shaken attendant said to the other, “This is not good, not good at all; I’ll bet he’s going to turn around and head back to Madurai!” The other attendant didn't say a word, but just reached into her pocket and pulled out a Rosary. Needless to say, I was not very comforted.