Indian Airlines refuses to get spooked by ghost tales

Sharjah: Indian airlines officials in the UAE have dismissed a complaint against a Sharjah hotel, where pilots were being accommodated during their layovers, being haunted as a rumour.
The complaint was lodged by a veteran pilot, Devi Saran, with the airline head office in India.
Devi Sharan, an Indian airlines pilot who captained the IC 814 which was hijacked in 1999 from Kathmandu in Nepal to Kandahar in Afghanistan, is a much respected pilot in India and abroad for his presence of mind and courage during the seven-day-long hijack horror.
The letter written to the Indian airline office in Mumbai says that the five-star hotel is haunted and extends poor customer service.
According to a Mumbai-based newspaper, Sharan said the corridors of the hotel reverberated with piped music and strange voices at odd hours. The rooms were by and large unoccupied and staff strength was limited to a few.
According to him, it was scary to spend nights at a hotel that was barely occupied. He also spoke of the eerie feeling he gets while walking through the corridors, as if he were the only one in the hotel.
However, Captain Sharan did not reveal details of his letter to the airline, saying he was not authorised to disclose the same.
The Indian airlines had signed a contract with the hotel in mid-March this year.
According to sources at the airline office here, some of the pilots were probably not happy about the new deal and preferred the earlier hotel.
The ghost tales openly aired by Sharan, which he says is supported by his fellow pilots, has got the attention of the authorities, because of the strange nature of the complaint. However, authorities are not ready to buy the story. “I have heard about the complaint. Captain Devi Sharan has given a written complaint about his opinion on the hotel. I do not know if other pilots have given similar complaints, said the Ashok Sharma, Indian airlines spokesperson in India. According to Anand Kumar Pande, the UAE Country Manager for Indian, the airline will adhere to the agreement it had recently signed with the hotel.
06/04/07 Sindhu Suresh/The Emirates Evening Post, United Arab Emirates

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Categories: Foreign Apr 2007, Indian Apr 2007