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ameya · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:00 pm Post subject: SQ424 : Packed to Mumbai.

Airline : Singapore airlines
Aircraft : B777-300
Flt No : SQ 424
Sector : SIN – BOM
Scheduled Dep : 2015 Actual Dep : 2020
Scheduled Arr : 2305 Actual Arr : 2312

Changi has always been magnificent & I have been through there a few times before & never left a chance to see a/c from there.
For a dep of 2015 I reached the airport at 1620 hrs , around 4 hrs in advance. Checking was already on, on row 07-08. Almost all flights to India are in this time bracket to you can see many many many Indian’s all around, & all had check-in on the same row 07-08. Delhi flight was at 1840 & the delhi crowd was in abundance. Sadly check-in took time, about 25 mins. I had pre booked by seat, web- checking which is pretty smooth & easy , to 60A, because I had figured out from the internet that the flight was pretty full so row 60 & 61 had just 2 seats abreast & I thought its much more comfortable to get out n get in.

Headed straight to T1 by Sky train which connects the two terminals. On previous occasions I have observed that the viewing gallery at T1 has better view than the one at T2. Moreover T2 has majority SQ flights & hence T1 gives opportunity to see other airlines as well. Just as I entered a China eastern A330 taxied away.
Cathay A330-200 taxied in & Qatar A330 was pushed back. Quantas flew in & so did Virgin, a few mins later.

A friend with me was hungry & we headed again to T2 to have some snacks & then immigration, which was pretty poor. Just 6 counters working. Well Mumbai is better when it comes to this. A line for about 10-12 mins again here. Finally inside the duty free area, had some snacks & went to almost all the gates to find out whats happeneing. The other motive was to find out if I can see A345 around, which I had seen last time around.
No luck this time.

E5 was the gate for SQ424 to Mumbai & people had thronged that area much earlier than expected. The same gate as well as the E4 had “READY FOR A380” written all around.

The security was quick. People kept coming & coming & coming. . . Just when I was wondering whats happening, there was an announcement mentioning that the flight is full in all classes & luggage restrictions have been put up. Each passenger will be allowed just one baggage & the rest is to be checked in.

Poor gujju’s had a tough time handling that & were reluctant to give away sooo many pieces of luggage. Almost each one had 3-4 duty free bags.
Finaly the boarding started which I thought was late at 1935hrs. But every thing happened so smoothly that we were pushed back at 2020hrs. Taxing took another 15 odd mins.
Just after take off, few gujju’s got up & started sharing some eatables. The crew had a tough time to make them seat, because the flight was bumpy. Pilot announced 4 times midway that bad weather was in store for us. After Andaman there were many jerks & we changed out path altogeather.

Food was decent but not really good. The main reason being things were unusual. Baingan Salad, Spicy Indian Bun, was not something that was expected.
Service too wasn’t up to the mark because the crew had to really run around in that situation. One of those days when all the 3 classes are full. That also meant Q’s at the washrooms.

Water was not given & having traveled by T7 before meant I knew where to get water from !!!
There was a heavy tailwind & we reached 54kms from Mumbai at 2224hrs. The pilot announced that we should land by 2238hrs. I was surprised. Was talking to a friend 10 rows ahead on KrisPhone & we were wondering how are we landing straight away.
We were right, the pilot came on announcement one more time, within 2 mins.
We are 22nd for landing, he said & that means about 40 mins, me and my friend calculated.
So it was endless circling, over Pune, Alibaug, Arabian Sea, the CSIA itself. Twice when over CSIA saw take offs.
Finally landed at 2312. Full a/c & 60A meant I was almost last to get off & a/c was at gate 19 so all the way to the left, for immigration which was amazingly fast. But baggage took 35 mins to come on belt, wonder why that was. Finally out of airport at 0052hrs.

The IFE on this aircraft was excellent. 80 movies, who wants to be a millionare game, poor guys don’t give money 
Facility to create playlists & what not.
Overall a good flight.

SIN – BOM
Outside temp : -42C
Max Height : 10363mts
Max speed : 976kmph
Max tailwind : 42kmph.

lambuhere1 · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:55 pm Post subject:

Good TR. Did you by any chance have a oppurtunity to take some snaps ?

Ram P

Nimish · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:21 pm Post subject:

So did you find row 60 comfortable due to the 2 seater? I generally just take a seat as much in the front of the a/c as possible, as that's the only way I can get out of the a/c and to the lounge in time during a transit halt Smile

ameya · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject: