Friday night I had a near death experience - well as near as I ever want to get that is! I was on a turboprop plane from Detroit, MI to Champaign, IL and if anyone lives in the midwest they know Friday night was a bad one for storms capable of creating "tornadic" activity.
The flight was scheduled to leave Detroit at 4:50pm and land in Champaign at 5:3opm - there is a time zone change in there so really only about an hour in the air with take off and landing time. We were delayed in taking off by about 40 minutes because the plane was late getting in and through customs (came from Canada). Then we zipped into the air and we were off. About 40 minutes into the flight things got bumpy. We kept on going through it, but apparently losing speed flying into storms, another 40 minutes passes, very bumpy and rough. The captain comes on we will be landing in 20 -30 minutes. Finally we start descending, we come out of the clouds and the storms are raging. Rain is pelting the plane, lightening is flashing on all sides, the plane is pitching violently from side to side and the ground is in sight. I am dying to get me feet on solid ground, grasping the arm rests and trying to breathe deeply to calm myself. I am a good flyer - but this was awful!
Finally it seems we are not landing after all but heading up, up, up again. Captain comes on - diverting the plane to Cincinnati because the wind shear is just too great and we can't land. 20 minutes later captain is back on - we do not have enough fuel to make Cincinnati - we are going to make an emergency landing in Evansville, IN. We land - they tell us to stay put, we are on a deserted tarmac, and the entire airport appears deserted. (Anyone see The Langoliers?) Finally a truck comes to refuel us - they tell us we are awaiting authorization to take back off and try Champaign again - this time dipping south below the storms and then coming in from behind the cells. We are patient - I use a bathroom that is smaller than my office chair in desperation. This plane holds 34 people total - the bathroom was the tiniest thing I've ever seen but it was necessary. THANK GOD my ass didn't get wedged in there! I was really worried for a few seconds but the full bladder won out. As soon as I emerge from coffin/bathroom they announce that we are going to deplane so we can get in the air conditioned terminal. But they warned us not to leave the terminal area as there were no TSA agents and we would not be allowed back through. No problem for me but the smokers were jonesin bad!
In the terminal everyone is breaking out cell phones. One guy's wife was at the airport in Champaign when we were coming in and there was an actual tornado warning and they were all funneled under the escalators - safest place I guess? She told him the board was showing our flight cancelled - 5 minutes later they announce the same to us. Great - I'm going to be stuck in Indiana? BUT the airline actually chartered a bus to take us the rest of the way. It took 3.5 hours by bus.
I finally got to Champaign airport, had to take a taxi cause the car rental counter had long since closed, and my nice early flight ended up getting me to the hotel and in bed by 12:30am.
This morning I'm wiped - got home on 2 very uneventful flights thankfully but very late - it was 12:30 when I climbed into bed. I am nearly dead today.
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5 comments:
Um, wow. I'm thinking that maybe Hell Trip wasn't quite so bad....
Glad that you're okay and also not stuck in nowwheresville at the airport time forgot.
I *HATE* dual props. HATE!
Wow, that's craziness. Glad you made it out alright!
After all that I think I'd be crying from gratitude when they said they were changing over to a BUS. Yikes.
I rode in one of those planes once but it actually had a flight attendant; she bent down to get some beverages for us and when she stood up, she had a handful of red swizzle sticks stuck in her heavily sprayed bangs. We let her come past all of us and the very last guy in the very back pointed wordlessly to her head and she finally reached up and felt them. I felt like an 8th grader torturing a substitute all over again.
Well I might have been grateful to get on a bus if only the ride wasn't 3.5 hours long and not on the interstate at all - just careening madcap on back country roads through Indiana and Illinois. And if it didn't mean getting in to late to pick up my rental stranding me at a closed airport in a strange city. And if it didn't mean getting to the hotel and bed 5 hours later than planned (12:30am) when I had to be up dressed and ready to take a written exam at 8am the next morning.
Yeah it was preferable to trying to fly through another storm and by that time the damage to my schedule and my psyche was done so what the heck why not take a crazy bus trip too?
oh and my turboprop also had a flight attendant. She was wearing high heels and trying to keep on her feet in turbulance. She spoke with a strong eastern European accent and was called Paula. She was blond and pretty and didn't seem scared at all. I on the other hand thought I should maybe take up praying again just in case.
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