Landing at Bangaluru

15 Dec 2013
I am flying to Male, Maldives via Bangalore.  Takeoff from Mumbai was nearly on schedule.  It was an Air India flight I had web-checked in for, and I had taken Alpha A to watch the sunrise. The weather was fine almost all the way.  First, it was dark sky, and then a glorious sunrise. Soon breakfast was served - it was not bad at all - it could not have been for one required an exceptional talent to spoil an omelette.

This small hillock, excavated from one side, is often seen while landing at Bangluru. I was expecting the ".. in a short while from now...  " announcement any time.

This mountain and a lake on my right told me
that we are not too far from Bangaluru.

But instead, the captain announced that the visibility at Bangaluru is zero and we are 8th in the queue for landing, that is, after the weather clears up. These were the low-level clouds. She told us that we were 65 k.m. from the airport. We hovered for nearly one hour before she asked the cabin crew to "take their station.  Just before the announcement, I saw this fellow ahead of us (marked by the red arrow), and we entered the clouds where the red arrow is in the third picture.

  

After we landed, the Captain very happily told us that only two aircraft landed, and both were Air India. Others went to Chennai.  Sure enough, as many of us were scheduled to go to Male from Bangalore. It was fun for me.