Friday, December 23, 2011

planes, delays and mechanical ordeals

This was the most unorthodox group of flights I have been on. I headed back to Nebraska yesterday for the holidays. I was supposed to arrive in Kearney at 9:40pm. I ended up getting there at 3am.

I was supposed to fly out of Portland at 2:40. We actually flew out closer to 3:30. The ticket agent told me that there was a possibility that I would miss my connection in Denver. However, he said if I didn't risk it, my next opportunity to leave Portland wouldn't come until Christmas day so I decided that I would just go for it. When we touched down in Denver, I ran to my next gate and made it 15 minutes before our scheduled departure time. Our departure time came and went and then disappeared on the monitor. The ticketing agents there assured me that the flight was still planned. An hour later, we boarded our plane pictured above. Denver had a large amount of snowfall earlier in the day and was bitingly cold. The plane needed a good deal of de-icing so we had to sit in the plane freezing while they de-iced it.

We eventually took off and almost made it McCook where we were going to drop one guy off and then continue on to Kearney. I would estimate that McCook is 3/4's of the way to Kearney from Denver. Before we could touch down in McCook, they announced that they were having some minor mechanical issues which were forcing us to return to Denver. It was unbelievable. We got back to Denver and were greeted again by the people that were still there waiting for their flight. They ended up being told that their flight was cancelled. Some people had been there since 3pm the day before, waiting. So, even though I was greatly delayed and left to freeze on a plane twice, I'm just grateful that I could make it home for the holidays.

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