So Close And Yet So Far

Monday
Jan. 3, 2011
This trip to Chile has been an eventful one so far, to say the least! I have never knowingly been in a faulty airplane before, but this time was a first. The Delta Airlines MD-88 left the gate in Buffalo as every previous flight has, and there have been many. That’s where it all ends! As we approached the end of the runway and where cleared for takeoff, we sat at the end of the runway for what seemed like an inordinate length of time. Soon we heard “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain. We seem to have a problem with one of the systems onboard the aircraft and we are talking to maintenance to see what we can do to fix the problem”. Another ten minutes went by and again we hear…From the Flight Deck, it looks like we are going to have to return to the gate so we can get maintenance to try and fix the Deicing system that is not working”. Not what you want to hear on a cold January evening in Buffalo! About an hour later the Captain comes back on the PA system and announces that air traffic control has given special permission for us to takeoff for Atlanta, but we are going to have to fly south at a much lower altitude until we can get away from any clouds that could cause icing. So they loaded extra fuel onboard and off we went, an hour and thirty five minutes late. NOW, remember, I only had a two hour layover in Atlanta and more than an hour and a half is now gone!
By the time I got off the plane in Atlanta, I was panicking! There was no gate ready to pull the plane up to, since the plane was late, and when the plane did come to a stop at the gate, I swear, everyone got out of their seats and just stood in the isle for what seemed like ten minutes. No one moved! I was ready to scream!
Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport is huge, and it takes a lot of time to get from point “A” to point ”B”, and I didn’t have much time. If it wasn’t for the fact that the plane to Santiago was delayed by 20 minutes, I would have missed the plane for sure!