The Horrible TG413 on 21 Oct

That would have had been the longest flight ever from Bangkok to Singapore, via an unexpected stopover in Batam. My friends were on TG413 scheduled to land at 1430hrs on Saturday, 21 October 2017. TG413 was delayed by four fucking hours. Changi Airport was useless with providing information, along with Thai Airways. A flight tracking site (I use it for all flights that matter; I OCD lah) was the first to update me with TG413’s flight path as being diverted, and then landing in Batam. I couldn’t believe it. 15 minutes later, the friends texted to say that they were IN Batam, sitting on the tarmac of Hang Nadim Airport. What the. 😵😤

TG413 told the passengers that they couldn’t land in Singapore because of bad weather, and stopped in Batam to refuel. Ostensibly. I totally pooh-poohed that. It was bloody blazing bright outside lor. Screen-grabbed the arrivals for the friends. Every other flight doing the same flight path +/- 60 minutes of TG413’s earlier scheduled landing had all landed. After three hours, it was clear that at Terminal 1’s arrivals, only TG413 was ridiculously delayed. Yeah, perhaps it was a security issue. *shrug* The plausible reason, I assume, was that TG413 didn’t have sufficient fuel to circle and wait for a landing slot at Changi Airport for more than 15 minutes. Hence it was forced to stop in Batam. Subsequently, Changi Aiport was so bloody busy and tight with landings that it couldn’t squeeze out a slot until two hours later. 😱😡

A much needed cold drink at dinner.

The friends never deplaned. They literally sat in that plane from 12.30pm to 7.30pm. The most horrible thing- TG413 is an old 777 which didn’t have courtesy electrical outlets to charge any sort of devices. To their credit, apparently passengers were pretty calm on that plane. I would have gone berserk or completely melted down. After an aborted attempt to fly out from Batam, and a second refueling, TG413 finally succeeded in getting clearance from Changi Airport to fly in and land at 1940hrs. Walaoeh.

Never happier to see them come through the gates to the arrival hall at the airport. The friends were up for dinner and a quick drink. Then we packed them off to the hotel to stretch out and rest in a space that’s bigger than their airplane seats. Needless to say, none of us caught the planned-for performance at Esplanade that night. At least the friends got in safe. Also, what would we do without current communication devices and power banks?

The welcoming sight of a bathtub in the friends' super comfy hotel room.