Cherian and Family before the take-off

We were sipping our morning cup of tea with Monday blues plastered across our face, when Cherian and family were thanking their stars on July 14. Even when we rummaged through our daily dose of news, the small box on an Air India flight barely caught our eye. But had that negligible little box told a different story, Cherian and Family would not be here to recount their near-death encounter. Cherian, who was making his triennial visit home on that god-forbidden flight, sees the whole episode as a mind blowing miracle.

Cherian, a Kottayam native, and his family of four were the sole Malayali travellers of the Newark- Mumbai Air India Boeing 777, which safe landed after a few minutes of panic and trepidation as the flight’s engines caught fire. Cherian and his wife Liza have been working in New York for the past 24 years. Liza can recall every little detail of that plane ride without batting an eye lid.

“The flight was on time. We were ushered into the seats at 4.20 pm and by 4.30 it took off. We could see the buildings languidly disappearing behind us and the marine blue of the Atlantic sea emerging through the windows. I unclasped my seat belts and asked my daughter to surf through the inflight entertainment and put on a good Malayalam movie. We finally decided on Celluloid. I was drifting off slowly while watching the movie, when my 16-year-old son called out to my husband, ” Liza quips.

Alvin, the couple’s youngest son, suddenly noticed the familiar blocks of skyscrapers instead of the sparkling blue of the ocean below him. “He called out to me and said look daddy we are going back to Manhattan. He also noticed the wisps of smoke in the sky. Then only it had struck us that there is something wrong,” says Cherian. The pilot and the crew made sure that the passengers were unaware of the mishap to avoid panic. That worked in the passengers’ favour beautifully. Because Anupa, their daughter, says even when the air hostess asked to put on their seat belts nobody doubted it is more than just a turbulence.

“One traveller was about to scuffle to the toilet. And that is when they insisted that everyone should put on their seat belts and do not move from their seats,” says Anupa. Alvin, who knew that there is an eight-hour-travel across the Atlantic ocean to reach India, suddenly remembered September 11.

“I don’t know what made him think of it then, but Alvin said it is from Newark Airport that the plane which hit the World Trade Center took off. And whatever courage we gathered together went in vain. I was in the cusp of erupting when my husband told me to calm down and I silently chanted prayers,” says Liza. “God has been merciful to us I must say,” she does not forget to add. For Cherian, however, this experience is nothing more than a significant day in their life.

The only thing that worried him then was the future of their kids had something happened to him and Liza.

“All four of us were there. That was the irony. If something had happened it would have happened to all of us,” says Liza. The family says the pilot was completely in control until the plane landed safely on Newark. “Once the plane touched the land, the pilot said with a sigh of relief ‘Thank God we are safe’. Until then he himself was not sure about the plane’s safety,” says Cherian. The family, who were to go to Kerala, took a momentary decision to visit Cherian’s sister in Mumbai before landing Kerala. They couldn’t travel the same day and was taken to a hotel to stay. “We couldn’t find any other Malayalis even when we were taken to a hotel to spend the night. The flight had mostly Gujaratis and Mumbaites. Despite their gruff behaviour, the authorities managed to find some space for us the next day,” says Cherian. Cherian believes that this could have happened even if he was traveling on road. Anupa agrees with him.

“Car accidents are so many when compared to planes. So because of this incident we are not going to stop travelling in a plane. That would make no sense,” Anupa concludes.