A teenage team of Bangladeshi inventors ‘Exo Max’ arrived at the Space Center Houston at 6:20am Bangladesh time on Tuesday to participate in the final competition of the NASA Conrad Challenge. Three contestants of this team reached there more than 24 hours after the scheduled time due to flight complications. The team’s new mentor Salman Promon, a PhD researcher from the University of Houston, USA, welcomed them there.
Among them, Md Twa Seen Elahi, the team leader and an SSC candidate of Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj District, and the co-captain of the competition, Mahdi Bin Ferdous of Natore Government Boys’ High School, arrived Houston by a Turkish Airways flight. Another member, Sanjeem Hossain, a student of Loreto School in Dhaka, went by Qatar Airways.
Pointing out the various difficulties in the trip, the team leader Md Twa-Seen Elahi told DigiBanglatek that the Turkish Airlines’ flight reached Dhaka three hours late due to the Iran-Israel conflict. As a result, we took off at 10am instead of 6:20am. Eventually, we missed the connecting flight. So, the 24-hour flight ended in chaos.
He also said that after the cancellation of the flight, instead of waiting for their own reschedule (because the reschedule will be done after the competition), we paid a penalty of 91,000 ×2 and booked Turkish Airways tickets which was on the 21st at 6:20 in the morning. Here is the story again. Flight was delayed by 3 hours. Then the transit time of 2 hours means that we will not get the flight from Istanbul to Houston on the 21st.
We went to the boarding before all, but they were repeatedly taking time; after 5 to 6 hours, finally the flight was given on the 22nd. As we have our American visa, they said that we will be allowed to go out.
We went before all but got the boarding-pass after all other passengers and went to the immigration, but story goes on. Seeing us minor boys, they checked all the details, talked to 2-3 officers and finally gave immigration pass. So, after 3 hours delay, we arrived in Istanbul. Then they told us to take e-visa. So, we took 2 visas by spending $62 × 2. Then they told us to talk to Airways Hotel Accommodation. So, we went through the immigration and got our passports stamped and then we were told that we can’t leave the airport because we are under 18. They told us to stay in the airport lounge. They have place to take rest. Following the instructions, we went but found no bed there. We placed big sofas side by side to make a bed. Foods and drinks were free.
Those who are minor like us, in transit they keep in Turkish lounges and are not allowed to come out. So, there were 2 of us and another European boy. A young lady staff was there in charge of looking after us at first. We then could sleep at the end. So, after the young lady’s shift changed, another polite lady came and said that this is a business class lounge, so you can’t sleep here like this. If you want to sleep, there is a napping seat outside.
Ultimately, we couldn’t sleep well. Energy is almost gone; we are just exhausted. Amid this condition, we managed to catch the American flight at 2 am. All in all, we have no idea that what are we going to do in the competition.