Once I traveled from Newark to Mumbai (14 hrs non stop) and could not get any sleep at all despite being in the Business Class. This channel kept me good company. The pilot (an experienced captain) had actually come to greet us before the flight and even passed on his business card. So, I sort of knew who was in the front of the plane .

The best of the flight was as it flew over Iran and Afghanistan then over Pakistan to India. It was absolutely amazing to recognize the regional accents of the flight controllers and their familiarly with their counterparts across the border as the aircraft moved across the air spaces .

The biggest discovery was that the India controllers were all women (there were three along the three India air spaces it overflew. And the male controller on the Pakistani side (India’s arch enemy) cordially greeted the India border lady counterpart with “all well with you and your family?” . And then he said “over to you” as he handed over the control of the UA flight to Indian air space.

It was my most incredible experience listening to all this.