A family friend of ours was to catch a flight to Qatar this last weekend. I volunteered to drive the over 26 weeks pregnant mother and her 4-year-old daughter to the airport - about a 250 km journey. The plan was to drop her off and return back to my base the same day.
Her flight was 8:00 pm and the counter will open for checking in around 3 to 4:00 pm. We set out as early as 8:00 am in order to beat whatever traffic we may encounter and return as early as possible. If only we had known.
Anyway, we got to the airport a few minutes before 11:00 am. Since her luggage is many and heavy, we decided to help out a little before traveling back to our base. I mean, she's over 26 weeks pregnant and needs all the help she can get.
I don't know if it is an aviation law or if it is peculiar to the Qatar airline she was to board, she was told to get a fit-to-board permit from medical experts before she can be allowed to board. Not to cause a delay when checking on starts, she quickly went to the recommended experts to get the permit. A few tests were conducted to ascertain the age of the fetus. In the end, she was denied the permit.
According to them, they cannot grant the permit because the fetus is more than 26 weeks. The maximum allowable gestation period is 26 weeks. Beyond this week, a pregnant woman constitutes a huge risk to the entire flight. If she falls into labour mid-air, the pilot may have to make an emergency landing.
This constitutes the beginning of the entire turpsy-turvy that characterized the whole day.
She was supposed to meet her husband on the other side. Calls started going out from families and friends to see if there is a way out. Walls were met at every turn. In the end, we had no option but to wait if she will be allowed to check in once the counter opens. Otherwise, she will have to return with us back to base.
It means all the money spent on booking the flight would be lost.
We decided to play a little trick.
Apart from putting on a gown that conceals the pregnancy to an extent, we advised her to tie a sweatshirt around her stomach throughout the process of checking in.
This means we have to wait until the checking-in starts, and probably until she boards. If she's denied at any point, we have to be around to pick her up back to base.
The entire day seems ruined.
Checking-in commenced and no one seems to notice are extra big belly. Perhaps because she is smart with it. She was about to be given an all-clear signal when another problem ensued.
Covid19 test result was demanded.
I thought we were done with this covid19 brouhaha.
Obviously, not with Qatar. So, if you intend to go to Qatar for the forthcoming world cup, that is an expo for you.
It was already around 5:00 pm. Flight is for 8:00 pm and here we are without a covid19 test result. We started running around to see if she can get the test done and still meet up with the flight.
We took a walk around the airport and began to make inquiries about where she can get the test done. After a few tries, we got headway. Although we had to trek for about a kilometer.
When we got to the laboratory, I was fortunate enough to meet one of my former students at the reception. After the initial greetings, I was told the test will take barely 20 minutes and goes for about $30.
That's good news about the time but I was a bit annoyed about the price.
Anyway, she paid, the test was conducted, and the result was produced in less than 20 minutes as promised. I used the little waiting period to do a bit of catching up with my student.
We returned to the counter and she was cleared accordingly. It took about another hour to sort out her luggage. By the time we were done, it was half past 6:00 pm.
Still, we could not afford to head back home.
What if she's denied at the point of boarding?
We finally accepted that we couldn't return to our base that same day, We started deliberating on where to sleep while heading to where the car was parked. The clearest option is to lodge in a hotel.
Hotels around the airport will cost a fortune (I am not the one paying, anyway). We are four in number that came to drop her off together. Also, I have a personal reservation about sleeping in hotels considering the security situation in the country.
We settled for hanging around in the car until about 4:00 am the following day. We will then head out back to our base. By our calculation, we should be back home around 7:00 am.
At about 8:30 pm, she called to inform us that she has boarded. We all breathed a sigh of relief. All the sacrifices will not be a waste in the end.
We all thought we are done for the day only to discover that one of the tires has gone flat. I quickly checked to see if the extra tire is ok but unfortunately, no.
We could not afford to wait till the following day before finding a solution. That means we might not leave the airport until around 10:00 in the morning. And we don't know of any vulcanizer around.
First thing first, we removed the flat tire and set out to find a solution. The worst is we will take a cab (irrespective of the cost) to the nearest vulcanizer, fix the tire, and take the same cab back to the airport.
Luckily for us, we were able to get a vulcanizer that is not so far away - within a trekkable distance. My brother inlaw that came with me rolled the tire while we both gist on our way to the vulcanizer.
We got the tire fixed for about a dollar, got some loaves of bread and drinks, and returned back to the car park. The tire was fixed back into the car, and we all retired into the car for the night.
Not like we got any sleep anyway.
At around 3:45 am, I couldn't hold it any longer, so I decided to start the car and jet out. We settled the parking bill for about $4.
At around 7:30 am, we were back at our base.
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