READING the report on the Cathay Alaska ordeal (South China Morning Post, March 4), reminded me of the British Airways ordeal in the summer of 1978.
The London to Hong Kong route then had several stops and a BA monopoly.
The scheduled stop at Calcutta, Dum Dum Airport turned into a two-day (when will we ever back to Hong Kong) ordeal.
Spending the day in a stuffy plane with continual expectations of leaving and scant information as to what was going on, we disembarked approximately six hours later and checked (eventually) into two hotels. A full flight of 500 plus passengers meant doubling up with strangers.
My five-year-old and I eventually joined an elderly New Zealand couple in a musty room complete with dead mouse. A 4am wake-up announcement was written on a board downstairs, thus filling us all with hope of an early take-off.
Alas, after two-hour bulletins throughout the day, another night was spent at Dum Dum.
