The scheduled time for this flight is 2:10am and we arrived at Changi Terminal 1 at 10:30pm. There was no-one at the online check-in desk and all the formalities were completed within 5 minutes. Equally there was no queue at the immigration counters and we were through in a jiffy.
Spent the time in the departure lounge taking some pictures of the orchids on display as well as taking advantage of the free internet terminals. You are restricted to 15 minutes per session but as far as I could tell there was nothing stopping you from starting a new session straight away.
EK405 is a continuation flight that originates in Melbourne. We proceeded to gate C25, which is right at one end of Terminal 1 at 1:00am just in time to see the Singapore-bound passengers disembark. At Singapore, it is here at the gate where you go through security screening, unlike at airports such as Dubai or Heathrow where it is before you enter the departure lounge. There are signs all over Changi describing the 100mL liquid restrictions, however, it was unclear whether or not it was being enforced.
Boarding began at 1:30am and we were given hot towels and the menu as per routine. As this is a late night flight, the meals consisted of:
Savoury Snack
-smoked turkey and cheddar croissant
-almond banana cake
-tea/coffee
Breakfast
-orange juice
-fresh seasonal fruit
-creamy mushroom omelette -or- nasi himpit (glutinous rice cake with sayur lodeh, bean curd, glass noodles, green beans and carrots accompanied by chilli sauceapparently)
-croissant
-muffin
-tea/coffee
The captain announced that the flight time would be 6 hours 25 minutes and that therefore we should be landing in Dubai ahead of schedule at 4:30am instead of 5:05am. We pushed back at 2:05am and took off at 2:15am. About 45 minutes into the flight, the savoury snack was served. However, the croissant was not warmed and as a result it was pretty awful. To make things worse, as we were passing through turbulence, a cup of tea wasnt allowed. Even though we were on a B777-300, this was a non-ICE aircraft and having experienced AVOD, it was a real let down and the selection of movies offered were not great.
Following the meal service, I tried to get some shut eye even though I am never able to sleep on planes. Things were pretty uneventful until we crossed the Eastern Indian coast and a call was made for any doctors on board as one of the passengers wasnt very well. Individuals made themselves known to the cabin crew and as no more announcements were made, I assumed the situation was under control.
The cabin crew started the breakfast service roughly 2.5 hours out of Dubai. They hadnt managed to reach our section of the cabin when the seatbelt sign came on and instead of showing Dubai as our final destination, Mumbai was now highlighted on the airshow channel. The captain subsequently made an announcement that the plane was to be diverted to Dubai so that the unwell passenger could receive specialist medical attention and this sparked off controlled chaos in the cabin with the cabin crew scrambling to retrieve the half eaten breakfasts during what was quite a steep descent.
We landed in Mumbai at 4:30am local time. Some of the passengers hadnt cottoned on to the situation and were beginning to gather their hand luggage from the overhead storage thinking that we had arrived in Dubai. The unwell passenger was taken care of and we were on the ground for 1 hour 15 minutes. During this time, water was offered and the Captain and head steward made frequent announcements regarding our situation. Naturally, there were also a number of passengers who were anxious about missing connecting flights. Note here on the cabin crew they were excellent during the whole flight. Even though they were clearly under pressure, a feeling of professionalism and competence was evident. Eventually, the Captain announced that the flight time to Dubai would be 2 hours 15 minutes, scheduling a 6:30am arrival, just about giving enough time to make the EK015 back to Gatwick which was to depart at 8:05am.
We took off from Mumbai at 4:25am local time and the crew provided a snack service with banana muffins and cheese sandwiches which had been loaded in Mumbai. Again there were no hot drinks this time due to the fact that the cabin was out of cups (I didnt fully buy that story, especially when I saw another member of the cabin crew make some tea for another passenger). The rest of the flight passed quickly and we touched down in Dubai at 6:45am and arrived at a remote stand by the cargo terminal at 7:00am. Three stairways were utilised (one for First/Business, two for economy) and buses were already waiting to take us to the terminal which is where I will pick up the next leg/trip report
Jonathan
