Passengers’ relatives come up against wall of inefficiency

“One person started to talk but he was stopped by an official on the grounds that it hadn’t been `officially’ confirmed.” Until almost 10 pm, all they could say was the plane was in Lahore.” “By then we had heard that four persons had been killed. Why can’t these people at least confirm or deny it?” rages Sanjeev Chibber, a surgeon who has been waiting for six members of his family.

“No one has any idea of what is going on,” says Om Prakash, whose sister-in-law is on the flight with her three children. “First we were downstairs and then we were brought upstairs. There are absolutely no facilities.” Others, like C M Katiyal, whose daughter-in-law is still in the plane, didn’t even want to discuss the attitude of the officials. His wife just sat in a chair, in no condition to speak. The entire airport has just one doctor on call, and is geared to handle minor emergencies and forward cases to hospitals.

“We’ll call the doctor here if the need arises,” says Naresh Chand, General Manager (Commercial) for Indian Airlines. No one can go to the doctor without permission from the airport manager as it is in a `sensitive’ area.