Nepal Earthquake: Wait for Rescue

On the 25th of April an Earthquake strikes the country of Nepal. The crew of travelxp at this point of time was shooting at Tatopani situated to the East of Nepal 150KM was Kathmandu considered to be safe when the calamity struck. The Indian government steps in and starts conducing massive rescue operations with maximum deployment at the western part of Kathmandu owing to the intensity of the destruction. The management at travelxp tries to get in touch with the crew but in vain. The management shifts its focus to contacting the crew by taking the social media route. Twitter handle @tanayaz110 (being political) takes up the cause. One of the followers of the blog @anupamkpandey assures on the handle that he has the ability convey what the current scenario is. Meanwhile, at this point of time the channel is in touch with the Indian Embassy in Nepal, Ministry of External Affairs and Vedprakashji from the RSS. Vedprakashji sends out a team to Nepal to help as part of the massive rescue operation. In the mean time, an update is received on the twitter handle @globetrotters that Tatopani which was initially considered safe is now in trouble. On the night of the 25th of April, Vedprakashji confirms that a team has been sent to Tatopani to check whether the crew is safe or not. On Sunday, the 26th of April, Officer on Special Duty to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra ‘Nidhi Sharma’, assures that all efforts are underway and the entire crew would be brought back at the earliest. In the afternoon, a tweet from @anupamkpandey suggests that the team is safe and communication can now be established. Similar information is received from Vedprakashji from the RSS on Sunday afternoon with the assurance that the team will be moved to Kathmandu at the earliest. With the channel management unable to establish any kind of communication with the crew, panic strikes. The management keeps making frantic calls. At 3:30 pm, Vedprakashji informs the MD of the channel that the team is being shifted to Kathmandu by the Indian Air Force. Two of the crew members have suffered injuries where as the other two are in a complete state of shock. At 4:30pm, a team member calls the channel based in Mumbai from the RSS Karyalaya at Pashupatinath. Indian Air Force officer again assures the channel management that the crew members would be rescued by the first flight available. The crew boards the flight in Kathmandu and lands in New Delhi on the 27th of April at 5am. However, the ordeal just does not end out here. The team was booked on a flight with Air Vistara to Mumbai at 7:25am and arrives at the counter at 6:40 am which is almost 45-minutes before the boarding. Air Vistara refuses to fly the crew on the excuse that they did not arrive on time and their tickets have been given to those in the waiting list. The boarding was closed. Air Vistara did not pay heed to the fact that 5 crew members had confirmed their tickets and in fact arrived before time to board the flight. No sense of humility was show to the fact that a few members of the crew were seriously injured and on the contrary offered a complete refund or wait for the next flight scheduled to depart Delhi at 12 noon. When the channel management called up Air Vistara at the airport, Vistara simply refused to address their concern and banged the phone on the MD of the channel. Travelxp at this point of time was even ready to offer an upgrade to Business class by paying more so long their entire crew gets to come back home at the earliest, however, even that demand was not paid heed to and the gates were shut at 6:25am for a flight scheduled to depart at 7:25am. It seems that Vistara did not care to have injured, unkept, dirty looking passengers even if they have just survived an ordeal on the same flight as some of their other well heeled passengers. To deny boarding to people who have confirmed tickets, shutting Vistara counters 45-minutes before the boarding and to be told a NO, is a shameful and illegal act. After being helped by unknown strangers, the RSS, the Nepali rescue teams and the Indian Air Force, it is disgusting to know the way Air Vistara treated the crew of travelxp. The channel along with the crew members would like to thank ‘Jet Airways’ who flew the crew safely to Mumbai on unconfirmed tickets or without paying any heed to how they would look if made to sit with their other passengers. SHAME ON AIR VISTARA!