Cockpit highs and covert flights: A bad week for aviation trust

Air India is, again, going through turbulence. In the latest air pocket bump, a pilot reportedly got high with a little help from his friends. No one may have noticed, were it not for the same plane coincidentally dropping 300 ft mid-flight. Ringo may have sung the sentiment sweetly in the Beatles song. But such altitude loss is less charming when a pilot's 'Dum maro dum' bears no relation to the old name of Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.

Meanwhile, Capt Trump has been up to his own shenanigans again. He confirmed that his secret service and military friends had, last month, orchestrated a clandestine swap of planes in Turkiye while returning from the Nato summit, so as to dodge a possible Tehran-planned attack.

This was a manoeuvre from Air Force One to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck, slick enough to be a magic trick. The risk? That the trick might have worked too well, leaving Trump permanently AWOL, ideally somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, where even Houdini would fear to tread.


Both stories highlight the peril of having friends in high places. But the lesson is: whether flying an Airbus or running a quickly ripening republic, getting high with a little help from your friends is best left to Lennon-McCartney.

Otherwise, you risk turning turbulence into tragedy, and 'dimocracy' into a disappearing act.