Roller coasters have been the focal point of theme parks for decades, often singlehandedly making or breaking a venue’s reputation for death-defying fun.
Of course we can’t rule out the possibility of occasional accident; but these steel and wooden adrenaline boosters offer a ticket to real-life action-adventure in a safe and controlled environment. You would have heard of the biggest, tallest and fastest roller coaster rides. Top most of the world roller coaster rides are supposed to offer more than 100 km speed and drop of whopping 150 feet in one go. I did experience roller coaster rides twice. The first one was in a theme park in Chennai - a modest one. Here I would like to explain my second ride, which must find a place in Guinness kind of records. I am one among the choicest 200 people who were blessed to experience that ride.
It was on an August evening, if I am right in 2005. With signature travel snags of garden city, I arrived little late around 4pm at Bengaluru airport to board my Chennai-bound aircraft of a private airliner. There came the Captain voice who confirmed that Chennai reported fine weather with more than adequate visibility and we are about to take off. Vroom 300+ Km on runway and in seconds we were air borne.
I was looking at my watch which showed 4.35 pm. I told myself that we should land at 4.45 pm and by 5.45 pm must be home. Yes, it was 4.50 pm but I did not experience the customary feel of descending. By the time Captain voice came in with an announcement: “We almost arrived at Chennai, but there is strong gusty wind with rain over Chennai airport, so ATC asked us to wait. Will report to you after 5 minutes”. We passengers were looking at each other with smile. After 5 minutes again the Captain: “Still raining. No ok from ATC. We are doing rounds over Kancheepuram, will update once we got the approval from ATC”.
After 5-7 minutes the captain announced “ Still raining over Chennai airport with thunder storm; but we are running off with fuel. We are left with fuel sufficient for 10 minutes only. Hence we cannot go back to Bengaluru and decided to land at Chennai. Passengers are requested to fasten seat belt and remain calm”.
Believe me the landing was such a breath taking with free falling of few hundred feet top to bottom and as well left to right. We all experienced world’s most scariest roller coaster ride free of charge! Somehow, the boldest and the most skillful captain landed safely without any physical damage to passengers! Unanimously all the passengers clapped for several minutes. Till date this remains the most awesome and scariest roller coaster ride I ever had in my life.