A bad day for flying
Thursday, August 10, 2006, started normally enough. It was the last day of SES San Jose, I’d stayed out almost until dawn partying after the Webmaster Bash at Studio 8, and I was up just a few hours later to head to the airport and come home. On the way to the airport a buddy called me to tell me about the people arrested in the U.K. with plans to bomb planes bound for the U.S.A., telling me to expect some trouble at the airports because of suddenly beefed up security.
Delta Flight 670, Taking off about 30 minutes after our scheduled 12:05 PM departure, turned out to start off bad and it would only get worse. As we approached Atlanta nearly on time, our pilot announced that heavy thunderstorms over Atlanta and a lightning strike at the airport would cause us to take a holdingg pattern as there were multiple aircraft waiting to land. Eventually, we were told we were out of fuel and that we would have to fly to Jackson, Mississippi, to refuel before we could return to Atlanta and land.
We were on the ground in Jackson for nearly two hours before the fuel truck even showed up, the flight had taken a nose dive, but we passengers were all pretty cheerful when the aircraft finally began to taxi towards a take off. It looked like Joe and I would make our connecting flight to Fort Lauderdale.
Suddenly we felt a jolt as the pilot turned too early from the taxiway onto the runway. The left main landing gear quickly plowed into the soft turf, the pilot gunned the engines, trying to get the plane back on the runway, but the landing gear disappeared into the ground;;not that I could see what was going on outside, but we could feel one side of the plane sink and tilt.
A motorized set of stairs were rolled up to the plane and we exited to three waiting vans that ran us to the terminal in groups of 24. It took over an hour to fully deboard the plane.
The Jackson airport had already shut down for the night. TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) had quit, and we were told if we went past the security check point we would not be allowed back in the terminal. It was a good opportunity to become a non-smoker.
The Jackson airport staff were really put off by our unexpected arrival and our eventual layover. I can understand this event distressed them as it was a surprise to them as well, but even considering all that they were still unexcusably rude.
For instance, they ordered about 90 pizzas from the local pizziarias, but once the pizza’s were delivered they would not let anyone touch them for about 45 minutes. We were told they were not “organized” to hand out the pizza and we would have to wait until they were. Apparently, there were no paper plates. Also, they told us everyone could only have a single slice of pizza and that “you greedy people can come back for a 2nd slice after everyone’s had a first slice.” There were at least 20 pizzas left over after everyone had eaten their fill, so that concern was ill-founded. Paper plates never showed up, and the patience of the inconvenienced passengers began to fray, we were slowly turning into an angry mob. Eventually, they let us at the now nearly cold pizza. A couple of courageous souls grabbed a box or two and headed off to distribute the piizza to other people, rather than making everyone line up for their single slice.
The same guy that told us were greedy also had previously told us to shut up when people had started asking how we were going to get home. They told us they would bus us to Atlanta. A bus ride would have been about a 6-hour ride.
The combination of hungry and inconvenienced passengers, combined with the inconvenienced and uninformed Delta and Jackson Airport personel combined to make the first hour or two inside the terminal intolerable. but after everyone had been fed the tension noticably eased. Joe and I ended up with 1st class tickets from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale. I fully intend to take advantage of that by drinking constantly from as soon as I can board.