Pakistan's tennis ace, Aisam ul Haq experienced a terribly scary flight on his way to Philadelphia from Montreal after taking part in Rogers Cup in Montreal. On his way to Cincinnati from Montreal Aisam was accompanied by his doubles partner Indian, Rohan Bopanna, Aisam's coach Robert Davis and Bopanna's coach Shayamal, said the information made available here on Thursday.
Aisam was sitting in emergency exit row reading a magazine when a flight attendant approached him and said " Sir, we might need you to operate the emergency door" and that made Aisam attentive. The 70-minute flight to Philadelphia had been bounced around by severe turbulence the entire flight and passengers were already nervous. Then the pilot announced that they would be in a holding pattern for about 30 minutes longer.
Finally, with landing gear down the pilot began his approach to the Philadelphia International Airport. With the runway in sight, he quickly aborted landing and the pulled the plane nose up and back up into the storm clouds. The pilot soon announced that there were problems with the wing flaps and they would be circling the airport for a short while longer while they performed tests. As the plane circled and the pilot began dumping fuel in anticipation of an emergency landing, some passengers started crying while others prayed.
Bopanna was not having any of that. Instead, he took out his Blackberry and started recording a running commentary. He thought it might be his last flight. Finally, the pilot made one final announcement." Please do not be alarmed at all the fire trucks and ambulances that are lined up on the runway," the pilot said. "It is just a precaution as we are going to land at a high speed and on a special runway". The flight readied for another landing attempt and now was flying very low over water. Many of the passengers thought that the plane was going to land in the water and not the runway and began holding hands and praying out loud. As the plane touched down fire trucks race alongside. Finally, the plane rolled to a stop and everyone was safe, but more than a little shook up.