Scheduled = Arrived?

No.. don't reach out for your thesaurus... you won't find it there. You may find it this equation the next time you go to fetch someone arriving at Mumbai's International Airport.

It so happened that yesterday, mom and I happened to go to the airport to receive Mama (uncle) who has come down to India for a brief stay. This is an annual ritual for us and so upon reaching the terminal, I checked out the arrival status screen put up outside the arrival lobby. The CX751 Cathay Pacific (mama's flight) was showing the 'scheduled' status. I told mom and we geared up for an impending wait. I chitchatted with mom for some time discussing miscellaneous things and again after 15-20 minutes, I went to check the refreshed status. It showed the same old 'scheduled' status and I again returned. For about 30-40 mins we were waiting for the change in status, but no luck!!

Then suddenly, mom saw mama on the other side of the glass in the lobby and told me so. I said, "Mom, the flight has not yet arrived. Don't you see... the screen is still showing scheduled. Its not even arrived yet." But then in less than a minute, I saw mama merrily coming out with his trolley! I was astonished & in disbelief I again glanced at the status screen. The screen still showed 'scheduled' for a flight that had already arrived long back!

I couldn't believe this. We all trust the arrival status screens so much that we don't ever question it. But for this incidence, it truly shattered my trust on the display system. And come to think of it... this airport is ISO certified (what a joke!). I left the terminal with mama & a skeptical look at Mumbai International Airport.