Indian Airlines refuses to get spooked by ghost tales

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By Sindhu Suresh sindhu@eveningpost.ae Officials dismiss pilot’s complaint of eerie music in hotel corridor as rumoursSharjah Indian airlines officials in the UAE have dismissed a complaint against a Sharjah hotel, where pilots were being accommodated during their layovers, being haunted as a rumour. The complaint was lodged by a veteran pilot, Devi Saran, with the airline head office in India.Devi Sharan, an Indian airlines pilot who captained the IC 814 which was hijacked in 1999 from Kathmandu in Nepal to Kandahar in Afghanistan, is a much respected pilot in India and abroad for his presence of mind and courage during the seven-day-long hijack horror.The letter written to the Indian airline office in Mumbai says that the five-star hotel is haunted and extends poor customer service. “I have written to the management about my personal opinion of the hotel,” is all Captain Sharan said about the complaint. According to a Mumbai-based newspaper, Sharan said the corridors of the hotel reverberated with piped music and strange voices at odd hours. The rooms were by and large unoccupied and staff strength was limited to a few. According to him, it was scary to spend nights at a hotel that was barely occupied. He also spoke of the eerie feeling he gets while walking through the corridors, as if he were the only one in the hotel. However, Captain Sharan did not reveal details of his letter to the airline, saying he was not authorised to disclose the same.The Indian airlines had signed a contract with the hotel in mid-March this year, an agreement that says the pilots flying the airlines planes would be accommodated there during their stay in Sharjah between flights. The pilots used to be accommodated at another creek-facing five star hotel prior to the new agreement.According to sources at the airline office here, some of the pilots were probably not happy about the new deal and preferred the earlier hotel.The ghost tales openly aired by Sharan, which he says is supported by his fellow pilots, has got the attention of the authorities, because of the strange nature of the complaint. However, authorities are not ready to buy the story.“I have heard about the complaint. Captain Devi Sharan has given a written complaint about his opinion on the hotel. I do not know if other pilots have given similar complaints, said the Ashok Sharma, Indian airlines spokesperson in India.According to Anand Kumar Pande, the UAE Country Manager for Indian, the airline will adhere to the agreement it had recently signed with the hotel.“Both the parties will honour the agreement, irrespective of the said complaint,” he said.“Whatever complaint Captain Devi Sharan has given is his personal opinion, not that of the airline. He has not written any complaint to the office here, nor has any other pilot,” said Pande.Pankaj Srivastava, the Regional Manager for Indian airlines, dismissed the ghost tales as “rumours” and said no complaint had reached his office so far. The hotel that has been at the receiving end is certainly not pleased with the developments.“I think this is funny,” said a senior manager with the group. “This hotel is situated in the middle of the city. Staff members live here, some with families. Had there been some such incident, would anyone live here?” he asks.“Maybe someone was not happy about some of the services in the hotel. But talking about ghosts and stuff to get their demand met is not good news for us. We have an international reputation,” said the manager.However, hotel management agrees that occupancy is low at the hotel, mainly because it is a new establishment, just one year old.Who is Devi Sharan?Devi Sharan is a 44-year-old Indian airlines pilot who captained the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999. He was much admired then for his ability to keep his cool and fly with a gun on his ear during the hijack drama which lasted for seven days and claimed one life. He had to steer a hijacked aircraft to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and Kandahar, speak to the Indian negotiators on behalf of the hijackers with 189 on board out of an airport with only 15 minutes of aviation fuel left. He had to force land a plane in a foreign country after runway lights were switched off.Captain Sharan was honoured at the Sharjah International Airport in 2000. He was awarded the 1999 ‘Safe Skies Award’ in Atlanta for his “extraordinary coolness and courage in life-or-death circumstances”.