Burmese Connection. Ashish Basu

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      Several minutes after the flight reached cruising altitude, just about when the flight attendants were getting ready with their service carts, a passenger started feeling unwell. She was three rows behind Kip’s, so he could not see much, but he could feel the anxiety in the voices of the flight attendants.

      After a few minutes of tense discussion and snippets of conversations from a couple of passengers near her, Kip heard the senior flight attendant say, “I would go and talk to the captain. He might consider landing in Burbank so that she can get immediate medical attention. We are not far from our destination of San Diego, but Burbank is even closer—could make a difference of fifteen minutes.”

      With those words, the flight attendant went away for several minutes. When she got back, she said, “I tried to explain, but the captain is reluctant to consider landing in Burbank because it would change the connecting flight options from San Diego and save twenty minutes. He did not think it would make a material difference, also Air Traffic Control might not be able to clear us for landing immediately.”

      On hearing that statement from the flight attendant, the passengers who were nearby started reacting. A male voice that sounded elderly said, “Twenty minutes can make a lot of difference when someone is unwell. You go and say that to your captain, young lady.”

      The flight attendant seemed to make an attempt to say something, “Sir, I understand, but—”

      Before she finished her sentence, another lady’s voice picked up the thread, a bit more aggressively, “What is wrong with your airline people? Why are you worrying about flight connections when someone is unwell? Someone’s life is more important than your flight schedules. You know, planes will fly tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that. I cannot believe this!”

      That last bit of lecturing opened the floodgate! More passengers spoke up; several of them had graphic tales to tell—stories of suffering uncles, cousins, and aunts started coming out of many seats. One lady spoke of a very sick aunt who got stuck on a plane in New York last month for three hours just because the captain parked the plane away from the gate, and the passengers were bused to the terminal. Her sick aunt had to wait for her wheelchair, which took a lifetime to arrive.

      They asked the flight attendant to go and talk to the captain one more time and persuade him. The experienced flight attendant realized the direction in which the conversation was going and how quickly things could go south. She left before things went out of control. This time, the flight attendant came back quickly and said that the captain had agreed, and the flight would land at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank in about twenty-two minutes. Pretty quick, thought Kip.

      Kip watched the whole thing unfold and wondered if he should inform Dr. Kang that he would be delayed for his 11:00 a.m. meeting in Chula Vista, but his AT&T iPhone had no bars, so he decided to wait for the plane to land. On landing in Burbank, he would have signal and could call then. He was still hoping that he would make it to Chula Vista, San Diego, for the meeting. He started watching their plane descending into the Bob Hope Airport through his window.

      Upon landing in Burbank, the sick lady was stretchered off the plane, and the other passengers were asked to wait in a quarantine room adjacent to the terminal building. Kip noticed a stern looking lady in the corner of the bare room they were in.

      As he and a few other passengers approached, she lifted her gaze and said, “Please fill out this yellow application form, and then form a line on the left side of my desk. And please stay six feet apart; we observe social distancing at the Bob Hope Airport, no exceptions. We have a very high standard of passenger hygiene at this airport, and we want to keep it that way.” Nobody disputed her claims, so she shifted her focus on her tabletop.

      The form had questions about their general health, travel plans, if they had a fever, if they had visited Wuhan in China recently, etc. It stated that the nurse would take body temperatures with a thermometer. It also said that depending on their answers on the form, passengers could be quarantined at the state-of-the-art quarantine facility located at the Burbank Airport. Apparently, the quarantine facility was so comfortable that some passengers wanted to stay there longer!

      After his experience so far, that was the last thing Kip wanted, even if the facility was state-of-the-art, so he followed the instructions. While they were departing, the nurse handed each passenger a set of disposable latex gloves and two surgical masks. She also advised each of them to wear a mask at all times in the Burbank Airport. Kip was happy to note that mask wearing in public places was gradually becoming a norm, at least in California. The whole process was long and inefficient to say the least, but he liked the fact that people were following the process. As Tim would say, “It is the process of compliance that protects people,” not the intent. The nurse took a lot of time, but eventually, she let all passengers go back to the main terminal building. All first half flights were already gone—short hop flights were a lot fewer, anyway.

      Kip got back to the airline counter at the terminal and found the only options were late evening flights. Then, he went to the rental car counter and found that cars were readily available, and he could potentially pick up the car from AVIS in Burbank and drop it off at AVIS in the San Diego Airport. The distance was not much, but if he opted to drive in a rental car, he could be stuck in LA traffic for hours. Traffic jams on I5 South were legendary. Interstate 5 (I5 for locals) and other routes to San Diego through the city of Irvine were all likely to be clogged with traffic at that time of the day. The last time he had tried going that way, he was stuck near the UC Irvine campus for three long hours!

      Ultimately, Kip decided against going to San Diego. Instead, he called Dr. Kang, explained the situation, and re-scheduled his meeting for a later date. After he ended the call with Dr. Kang, he got back to the terminal building to check the options for return flights to San Francisco and even Oakland. He checked with United, Delta, and Southwest Airlines. The earliest outgoing flight was around 8:00 p.m., which meant he would be home around 11:00 p.m. at the earliest.

      As he was checking the flight schedules, one thought occurred to him. He could simply go to his friend John’s house in Glendale and borrow his old car for a drive back to San Rafael. John and Kip were in high school together in Boulder, Colorado, and they had always stayed in touch. Lately, they had not met each other in a few months after the COVID-19 lockdowns. The last time John was visiting a studio in Emeryville, he did not have time to drive down to San Rafael because he had to fly out of Oakland Airport, so they missed each other. Then came the lockdowns. Everybody had to drastically cut down essential and non-essential travel by air. As it was, John did not travel much for work. Kip was the one who did, so he might as well make up for the missed opportunity in the Bay Area. This was a good time for Kip to meet John and his son Joe. He knew John’s wife was at her parents’ place in Santa Barbara looking after them. The extended lockdown had complicated life for the elderly more than others could even imagine.

      With a little luck, that option could get him home probably by 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. Kip’s next call was to his friend John. As expected, John Abreo was at home because of the lockdown; his post-production company had switched to “working from home” mode. John readily agreed to lend the old Acura Integra to Kip. He said that the old car was only occasionally used by his son, so Kip could borrow and keep it for a few days. John’s son was college bound, but the admission he was longing for was not in hand yet, so Joe did not have a use for the car during the lockdown, and it stayed parked roadside. John said the car had not been serviced in a couple of years, so Kip should keep that in mind.

      Kip knew he would have to visit Southern California (SoCal) in a week, he could always drop off John’s Acura during his next trip. In a few minutes, Kip picked up his backpack, came out of the terminal building, called a Lyft ride, and left for John’s house in Glendale. Like many folks do in Los Angeles, Kip’s Lyft driver used some shortcuts and made it to Glendale СКАЧАТЬ