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Nepal Earthquake: Part 3 — The Airport and Coming Home

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Posted By: Wanderlusty April 27, 2015

in four parts:

since i tried to live tweet my weekend, i’m going to expand on those and fill in some of the blanks. my heart goes out to the country of Nepal and its people — this tragedy affected them in ways i cannot even imagine. i’m one of the fortunate ones.

i was lucky. why? the earthquake happened the day before i was supposed to leave Nepal, so the only thing it cut short for me was some souvenir shopping. i had a confirmed ticket on a flight out that day. i spent the night with a roof over my head.

Photos from Kathmandu

as the cab pulled into the airport roundabout i could see a bunch of people literally camped out on the lawn. i’d later discover that most people who had a flight out the night of the earthquake (like the friends i made, see below) and didn’t make it spent the night there, on that lawn, or when it rained, in a cramped room somewhere in the terminal.

Photos from Kathmandu

it. was. crazy.

you can see flyers up that announced the cancellation of flights from the night before and the morning — from what i understand the airport was closed to civilian traffic until the afternoon.

i got there very, very early, a little after 10 AM, and my flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 5 something. i managed to find a seat on an unused police information desk. i found a stack of pamphlets for a trekking company and unfolded them to make a clean place to sit. i don’t know why i felt the need to do that, but hey, any small luxury, right?

Photos from Kathmandu

did i mention it was a zoo?

i sat there for a couple hours just watching the flight display monitors, which didn’t seem to be giving any correct data at all. at one point they just went dark.

some time nearing 1 PM, i think, there was a large aftershock (6.8, i hear) which sent people, including me, running out into the street. i was standing next to a French lady who was sobbing, with her friend trying to calm her — doucement, doucement.

at that point i figured i might as well start waiting in the super long lines to get into the terminal. there are two different check-in areas, and the monitors did show what airline was which area, but as they were dark i chose the more popular area B, just in case. as it turned out, they all lead to pretty much the same place. i stopped to get some food from the snack stand to eat while i was waiting in line — a can of coke and a tube of pringles. stores were running low but i knew i needed something.

the line was so slow. this picture was taken near the front of the line; i spent well over an hour waiting. the problem is that they x-ray screen bags and pat people down going into the airport (as is common in many places, so i didn’t find it unusual) — it was a major bottleneck.

Photos from Kathmandu

this time, facing forward:

Photos from Kathmandu

people started getting quite testy now when there were cutters in line. “NOOOOO!! NO NO NO!!!!!! THAT WAY!!!” people would yell as they pointed to the end of the line.

finally i made it inside to find that the Etihad stanchions were just being set up. as the monitors over the check-in lines were not operational for a while, there was confusion as to which lines were which. i found myself in line behind a young lady from Quebec who was making friends with two German guys in front of her, and a Russian guy from Moscow behind me.

as the computers were down and they were manually checking everyone in (and our guy was particularly slow and due to confusion, we had two lines merging into one), we soon got to talking and became friends (of necessity?). i’m so grateful to have met them, their company was just what i needed.

in terms of getting a boarding pass, it seemed to be first come first serve, as they had partially filled out passes with consecutive seat assignments that they were just handing out. we had heard only two of the three planned flights Etihad had were making it — later we would discover that instead of two narrowbody planes they were going to send one widebody. i guess again, first come first serve; didn’t matter if you were supposed to go out the day before or this day — i don’t know how people who did not have a confirmed ticket fared. i’m hoping they too were allowed on.

Photos from Kathmandu

security and immigration were basically empty, as the hold up was now at the check-in counters. after going through without a hitch, i emerged to a corridor already full of people sitting along the walls. i continued further into the departures area and found a morass of humanity. there were no gate assignments and i didn’t hear any sort of announcements. where was i supposed to sit? what was i supposed to do?

that’s when i discovered the doors to the ramp were open. yep, you could just walk right outside.

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

people were just sitting out there, making the most of the situation. there was some clamoring for bottles of water that may or may not have been given out by officials (not sure) but for the most part, it was just like having a picnic at an air show. there was already a Qatar jet on the ground and a large number of Indian Air Force planes which brought in supplies and were going to bring out people.

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

slowly but surely the planes started to fill with people, as workers went through the crowd yelling that a certain airline was boarding. there were only so many parking positions available, so inbound planes could not land until one of the ones already present took off, so we on the ground were just as anxious as those in the planes to get going.

as people boarded their planes, cheers and applause erupted. it was so surreal. i’ve never seen military jets in action before, let alone carrying people, and we were all sitting there, waiting to see whose planes would land next so they could get out of town.

i found my friends from the check-in line and we sat around, talking. there was one sweet spot where 3G service worked well enough that i could actually post tweets with pictures. i lent my phone to some of them so they could inform loved ones they were OK.

Photos from Kathmandu

our flight was supposed to leave around 5 something, but the Etihad plane did not land until 8ish, i think. by this time it was getting dark and cold, and it started drizzling.

Photos from Kathmandu

there was mass confusion about the boarding process. we ran to the plane as it pulled in like passengers did for flights that went out earlier, but then we were told to get into the terminal (i think they were now starting to get worried about safety since it was getting dark?) and we had heard they were going to board from Gate 4.

we made it to gate 4 and as we were waiting, a very profane shouting match erupted between two people. i don’t know what it was about, but the language made me blush. i had heard of someone yelling at the person manning the sole coffee stand in the terminal as well — tempers were definitely getting heated.

after a while, someone went to an agent and discovered we were actually boarding out of Gate 5, which made sense since that was closer to the plane. well, we couldn’t get to 5 from 4 inside the terminal (literally, sardines) so we ran there from the outside. despite their best intentions to have us squeeze into the terminal, a bunch of us just huddled around the door.

finally, they started.

it ended up being open seating, so we were lucky we were among the first to board. i was assigned a middle seat but managed to get an aisle. it was so nice to know we were going to finally be getting out, but i was so afraid that every little motion the plane made (e.g., cargo door closing, tow bar being attached) was an aftershock which would delay us even further.

we did encounter a problem pushing back, though, as the tow truck broke or something, so they had to wait to get another one, but when we finally did take off, the cabin erupted in applause. i was really dehydrated at that point, i think, which combined with the heightened emotions sapped my appetite more than i thought. i managed to finish most of the dinner though, and went to sleep for the rest of the 4 hour flight to Abu Dhabi. there were people with visible injuries on my flight, and the person behind me was at the Dharahara Tower when it collapsed and witnessed people being killed. how horrible! i was counting my blessings.

upon landing, i discovered i was too late for me to make my connecting flight to SFO, although personally i think i could have made it. Etihad did give me a hotel room with breakfast and a meal voucher, though. i’m sitting here now in Abu Dhabi waiting to start work (back from vacay, straight to work!).

as we took off, it really started raining, and i felt even more lucky to be getting out. my heart still aches for the Nepali populace as well as those visitors who are still there, trying to get out.

alas, the main ordeal was over, but it was only last night, laying in bed, that i started to mentally process what was happening. it wasn’t pretty.

[continue reading]

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