We had a travel experience that I hope we never get to experience again. Our flight out of Jackson, MS left on time (10:45 AM) for flight to Charlotte, NC for connection to LaGuardia to arrive around 4:30 PM. From our arrival in Charlotte until we arrive in New York, we had nothing but problems.
When we left from Charlotte, we were sure to arrive on time in New York. After getting somewhere in the vicinity of New York, we began to circle. After about 30 minutes, we were informed that we were holding due to severe weather over the airport. 15 or 20 minutes later, the pilot came on the intercom and informed us that we could not land at LaGuardia and no other airports in the area would be able to handle our flight therefore we were returning to Charlotte. Apparently there were many other planes holding in the area and it would be too long for us. This was only the beginning to our most unusual flying experience.
We returned toward Charlotte and we met with a surprise. Charlotte was under a thunderstorm which put us into a holding pattern once more. About 20 minutes of holding, we were informed by the Captain that we would be diverted to Greenville for refueling since he did not have enough to continue to circle Charlotte until the storm cleared. We arrived in Greenville where we refueled and waited until Charlotte had cleared enough for us to return. The pilot said that in his 21 years of piloting, this was the first time that he had been diverted from a diverted landing sight. Since the crew had completed their limit of flying time, they would not be able to take us to New York. This caused us to have to leave the plane, get our baggage and try to re-book a flight to New York.
Once we were off the plane and worked our way to the main center court, Betty took on the challenge of getting our baggage while I tried to book us on another flight to New York. I was having problem with my ATT phone getting connection to the number for rebooking. Finally I was able to reach an operator who worked to get us out on a flight to Newark that was scheduled to leave in about 50 minutes. I was able to get our boarding passes while Betty was getting the baggage rechecked. Boy was she the trooper. She had to stand in long lines to go back through the process of re-checking and then to go through the security check again. I was waiting for her and was getting worried that she wasn’t going to make it back to the concourse in time for us to get on the flight. After calling her several times, she finally arrived and we headed down the runway to the gate area. Man was that the longest walk – speed walk - that I have ever taken, especially with my knees. When I arrived at the gate, the time our flight was to leave had changed about 45 minutes. Being out of breath and heart palpitating it was nice to be able to sit and catch my breath. It would have been nice to see the change of time of departure while I was still in the main lobby.
As it turned out, our plane was also running behind schedule and was not even at the airport. When it finally arrived, it quickly unloaded and then we were able to board for our late flight to New York. When we arrived in Newark and got our luggage, we had to take a taxi to the hotel. We finally arrived at the hotel around 3 am and thankfully had a good bellman and good desk clerk. After getting checked in, we got to our room as two tired puppies. We were blessed with beautiful flowers in the lobby and that made a great impression on Betty.
In my next posting, I will put some of the pictures that Betty and I were able to take during the short period that we now had to be tourist. I will also tell about our second interesting flight home on the 27th.
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