Pakistan’s tennis star Aisamul Haq Qureshi had an eventful flight to Cincinnati during which all arrangements were made for an emergency landing. According to Robert Davis, Aisam, trainer Shayamal Vallabhjee and Rohan Bopanna were happy to have survived a flight scare en route to Cincinnati. In his column on an ATP website, Davis wrote: “After their Rogers Cup campaign Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi began an eventful journey to their next port of call on the ATP World Tour. Aisam was sitting in emergency exit row 8F reading a magazine on a flight from Montreal to Philadelphia when the in-flight attendant approached him. “The lady whispered to me, ‘Sir, can you please put the magazine down and free your hands.’ And I said like, ‘ok, why?’” Qureshi recalls. “And she said, ‘because we might need you to operate the emergency door.”
The 70-minute flight to Philadelphia had been bounced around by severe turbulence and the entire flight and passengers were already nervous. Then the pilot announced that they would be in a holding pattern for about 30 minutes longer. Finally, with landing gear down, the pilot began his approach to the Philadelphia Airport. With the runway in sight, he aborted landing and pulled the plane nose up and back up into the storm clouds.
Rohan Bopanna and trainer Shayamal “Veg” Vallabhjee were sitting in the front row. “I could hear the flight attendant talking with the pilot on the phone and she kept telling him that he needs to tell the passengers,” says Vallabhjee. “And she was not looking happy about the situation.” The pilot soon announced that there were problems with the wing flaps. As the plane circled and the pilot began dumping fuel in anticipation of an emergency landing, some passengers started crying. Bopanna threw in some jokes to help his trainer relax. “What can you do except take it like a man?” said Bopanna. Finally, the pilot said, “Folks, please don’t be alarmed at all the fire trucks and ambulances that are lined up on the runway,” the pilot said. As the plane touched down fire trucks raced alongside. the plane rolled to a stop and everyone was safe.
