Actually neither shocking nor ironic to me........There were eleven teams that raced damn good in their seasons. They were all consistant and competant racers. As the premise for this season of TAR, they got eliminated by a quirk.
So far every team eliminated were involved in the free code word for the very first roadblock......that is the pattern that interest me. Only two teams left that didnt solve the naval flag puzzle by themselves left, Kent/Vyxin and Flight Time and Big Easy.
As far as the flight from Kolkata to Varanasi, there were maybe a dozen flights from Kolkata to Delhi that afternoon/evening. It is obvious from comments by Flight Time and Big Easy, that they flew to Delhi on a flight by themselves. I am thinking that teams were scattered among those dozen flights. The last Kolkata flight to Delhi arrived in Delhi about midnight. I assume teams left the Delhi airport and found a cheap place to sleep. Then went back to the airport the next morning. All teams except Jet/Cord were on Kingfisher flight IT231, 930-1045. Jet/Cord were on 9W723, 1030-1145. That is the only way I can resolve the fact that the Kingfisher group never saw J/C or vice versa.