I’m not a blogger employed by the government of Dubai, contractually obligated to show only wealth, glamour, and perfection. So when things went a bit sideways on my journey home from my tiger safari in India, I felt it was worth telling the story — the unfortunate, frightening, and very real side of travel.

Before we get to that, I do need to mention that the trip was a photographic success and I have some incredible tiger and wildlife images from the 6 days riding around in jeeps in the Madhya Pradesh game reserves.

Our first stop was Kanha Safari Lodge, where everything went beautifully. The food was excellent, the hospitality outstanding, and over the course of three days we enjoyed two safaris each day. From Mukki, we continued on to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, where we stayed at the Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge.

My room here was massive. I have seen NYC apartments smaller that the bathroom. But that was quickly forgotten when on the second day when I woke up and noticed several bites on each of my legs, all below the knee. I found this odd and since they didn't hurt I simply asked one of the staff to change the sheets hoping this would solve the problem. we went out again and had another great day waiting for sleepy tigers to get up and move plus plenty of other wildlife. Upon returning to my room, I noticed about a hundred small bugs congregating on the windowsill. I quickly reasoned that they were not at fault as they had no way to get under the sheets at night. I went to bed after reviewing that evening's safari images.

On the third and last day I awoke and became a bit angry and rather concerned that I had fresh bites on both legs, this time slightly above the knee. I took photos and informed the tour operator in Barcelona as well as the owners of the lodge. The owner was very careful not to admit guilt or take responsibility and were quick to blame the congregation of windowsill bugs and proceeded to let me pay my small bar bill without flinching. Shortly thereafter, the owner said she was sorry and said that they should stop using that room because it perennially has bugs in it during the summer. No shit. See the images of the bites on my leg below:

We then checked out and got in the luxury van for the 4 plus hour drive to Jabalpur airport with the same insane driver that delivered us to the first lodge. Driving like a lunatic is apparently a cultural thing so we buckled up and left, now knowing what to expect.

Fast forward, the flight to Delhi was uneventful on IndiGo airlines which is kinda the RyanAir of India except they're polite and reasonable. Next, I checked into Swiss LX147 with my enormous photo backpack as a carry on and a checked bag. After checking the departures board, I realized that most flights from Delhi to Europe depart between midnight and 1:30am — and ours was scheduled to leave at 1:05am.

And if you prefer to view the images from the trip now instead of later, here's a link to the Indian Safari gallery on my website - please enjoy and share with your friends and family!

Boarding was unremarkable other than being asked to show our passports and boarding passes 2 or 3 times. I have my camera equipment backpack in the overhead storage area and my book "the Soul of an Octopus" on my lap as we begin the take off process. As we gather speed - maybe 10 seconds after we began - I heard a loud "BANG", the plane shuddered violently and then came to an abrupt stop on the runway.

My first thought was that we had a flat tire which meant that we would all have to get off the Airbus A330-300 because you can't change a tire with passengers aboard. "Shit, it's going to be a long night" I remember saying to myself. I was wrong, it would be a long AND sleepless night.

Now there was just silence. I could faintly hear the voice of a flight attendant presumably speaking with the captain via the intercom but failed to discern anything significant. About 30 seconds later, the voice of the lead flight attendant screams with clear and obvious fear in her voice - "EVACUATE-EVACUATE-EVACUATE!!!!" As if I had been trained for this, I immediately unbuckled the seat belt, quickly slipped my sneakers back on my feet and walked 7 or 8 steps to the port door. Here, I saw the slide inflated and noticed that there were two "lanes" on the slide yet nobody was using the left lane. Now I could smell the odor of an electrical fire although I did not see any flames. Instinctively, I chose to go down the left side meaning I could get off the plane quicker and without the. chance of hitting someone at the bottom of the slide.

I rapidly slid down the left lane of the slide taking note of the heat generated by the friction of my jeans and in one movement smoothly stood up and broke into a jog as I arrived to the bottom of the slide. Once I was about 100 meters from the plane, that's when I remembered that I was a photographer, stopped, turned around and took a few photos and a video. Below is the first photo that I took of the port side engine that had an explosion.

Click here for an 11 second video of the aftermath of the evacuation as seen from the tarmac at 1:38am on 26 April 2026.

I remember saying out loud "What the Fuck?" several times, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then I heard a crew member shout that someone had a broken arm and there were a few non-life-threatening injuries but they did bring out an ambulance for the person with the broken arm. Then, some 30 minutes or so later a crew member with a small and weak bull horn shouted something about buses and soon thereafter we were whisked away back to somewhere in the terminal and got off the bus.

This is when the absurdity began. Once we arrived back at the terminal, we were forced to clear security again. Yes, after an emergency evacuation we all had to go through the metal detectors, take off our belts and empty our pockets. Completely ludicrous. Along those same lines, about 20% of the passengers decided it was a good idea to bring their wheeled hand luggage with them as they slid down the evacuation slides. That's a great way to puncture the slide and/or have your luggage injure you or another passenger. I would be willing to bet that those are likely the same people who use their speakerphone in a restaurant.

I quickly found an aisle seat in the waiting area and began the wait which lasted from about 2:45am until 8:30am. At this time, they brought out the cabin baggage wrapped in plastic bags and decided to hold it up and shout out the corresponding seat number. I happily collected my camera backpack including my laptop and 8,000 images from the trip. Now we went to a luggage belt in baggage claim and retrieved our checked bags as if we had just left the plane under normal circumstances. We then walked outside to chartered busses that took us to a hotel in central Delhi where we ate and stayed overnight and the entire next day as I was rebooked on a Lufthansa flight connecting to Valencia via Munich.

Adding to the emotional discomfort of the entire situation, security and customs were understaffed/overwhelmed in Munich and we, along with a significant amount of other passengers, missed our connecting flights. Then, I re-booked myself on another flight departing 6 hours later and I settled into a seat with a pretzel and a coffee to comfort me as you can see below.

My wife and sons asked me whether I was afraid to fly again and how I was coping with having been in a potentially life-threatening emergency situation. I had to reflect on that for a few moments before answering. The truth is, I made a conscious decision not to torment myself by disappearing down the rabbit hole of what could have happened. Instead, I chose to focus on how calmly I reacted during the emergency and how fortunate we were that the explosion and fire happened on the runway rather than at 10,000 meters in the air.

While in the hotel in Delhi, I started researching the flight paths out of India. Because of the ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine, the USA and Iran as well as instability in other parts of the Middle East, there is now only a very narrow corridor available for westbound air traffic departing India — something clearly visible in the Flightradar24 screenshot below.

As the eternal optimist that I am, I’d still take an unexpected extra day in a Delhi hotel and an emergency evacuation on the runway over an engine fire at 10,000 meters above Turkmenistan, an emergency landing on a single engine, and an unplanned stay in an Ashgabat hotel. Things don’t always go according to plan, but how you handle the unexpected makes all the difference. That's how I dealt with what happened.

THE biggest disappointment of the trip is how Swiss airlines behaved afterwards. In Europe, there's a law called EU 261 which is a European air passenger rights regulation that protects travelers in cases of major flight delays, cancellations, denied boarding, etc. Depending on the circumstances, passengers may be entitled to financial compensation up to €600. Compensation is usually not owed if the disruption was caused by “extraordinary circumstances” outside the airline’s control, such as severe weather or political instability. I'm not an attorney nor do I play one on TV, but an explosion and fire in an engine is clearly the responsibility of the airline and is very different than political unrest or a massive thunderstorm.

The online compensation form on the Swiss International Air Lines website was, “surprisingly,” unavailable for more than 48 hours following the emergency evacuation and engine fire. Consistently broken, inaccessible, and impossible to submit. That’s simply unacceptable and to me seemed almost intentional. After a long back-and-forth via email — because there is no customer service phone number — Swiss ultimately denied the €600 compensation claim. Instead, after ignoring my emails for more than two days, they offered a €300 travel voucher and a few empty apologies. See below:

To help recover the €600 compensation I should be entitled to under EU261, I ended up hiring an attorney who works on a percentage basis of whatever amount is successfully recovered. Flightright GmbH is now handling my case, and they’ve already warned me that the process could take several months — so patience it is.

And finally, after returning to Valencia, I was put through a full round of tests to make sure the fleas hadn’t transmitted any diseases. Three stool samples and two vials of blood later, everything came back clear — all good in the end. No pun intended.

And with that, the story of a nature photographer’s trip that wasn’t entirely puppies, unicorns, and perfect sunsets comes to an end. Ironically, the same skills I rely on in the field when photographing wildlife and nature are the ones that helped me navigate what Swiss Airlines described as a “distressing situation”: patience, perseverance, quick decision-making, and the ability to adapt to the unknown.

But enough about emergency evacuations and delayed journeys — let’s focus on the good part: Here's a link to my India Safari gallery on my website. Enjoy :)

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