Lets Land

The defective aircraft
I was going from Hyderabad to Delhi in an army aircraft, (Russian AN 32) which was carrying only about 10 passengers who were sitting at the rear end. The mid portion of the aircraft was loaded with a heavy machinery of some other aircraft properly tied with strings so that it does not slide during landing/taking off. The aircraft flew smoothly except at places of turbulence where it jerked shaking all of us. Soon we were to land at Delhi and were on its outskirts. We got a message from the pilot to come and assemble near him. Having a tendency to think worst by the behaviour of the aircraft we at once clustered ourselves near the pilot to have the suspence revealed by him. He however kept quiet  and  the aircraft landed safely finally coming to  halt. We then asked the pilot why he had called us near him. He replied,
“The weight at the rear was more due to the heavy machinery loaded as a result of which the nose of the aircraft was not going down so to dip it I had called all of you to serve as counterweight as a result of which we landed. Thanks !
“You mean to say we would have reached in space if the nose did not behave, “Said one of us as probably with his logic.