Saturday, July 19, 2008

My 'Travel Karma' is Whack!

I'm one that normally has great travel karma - things just go pretty smoothly for me.

Today... not so much...

I finished class up a bit early and went to the airport trying to catch an earlier flight home. But the thriving metropolis of Grand Rapids doesn't really have lots of choices. But when I got to the United counter their earlier flight to Chicago (one of only two each day) was delayed and I could still get on it. But only if I didn't have any luggage.

Well when I teach I carry quite a bit of 'stuff' and so I wasn't able to get on the flight. Instead I got on the flight I was originally scheduled for - and then proceeded to sit on the runway for hours and hours - waiting on a runway to be opened at O'Hare in Chicago.

I guess there was a wee bit of an accident when a Mexicana flight overshot the runway - and they had to get out some large cranes to lift it back on the runway. Thus closing one of the three runways and delaying hundreds of flights.

So I a two-hour drive to Chicago (or supposed to be a 25 minute flight) turned into almost 5 hours!

Luckily (I can't believe I said that about a delayed flight) - Luckily my flight to SLC was also delayed - so I was able to get a flight out of Chicago and come back home. Finally landing about 3:00am - just in time to find my bags didn't make it on the plane. (Somehow having hours and hours of time to transfer the bags just wasn't enough today)

So I just got home after a 15 hours ordeal - I could have easily gone all the way to Sweden in this amount of time, and had extra time to spare!



O'Hare safety area stops jet that overshot runway

July 19, 2008


A Mexicana Airlines flight with 145 passengers and crew aboard overshot a runway at O'Hare Airport on Friday but stopped safely when it reached a safety area designed to slow errant planes.

One crew member was slightly injured in the 7 p.m. mishap. City Aviation Department spokeswoman Karen Pride said the "arrestor bed" at the end of a runway stopped the plane.

Airline spokesman Adolfo Crespo said the Airbus A320 departed from Mexico City. Crosswinds forced Flight 802's nose gear off the runway, he said.

Pride said the arrestor bed's lightweight concrete blocks ''worked perfectly.''

5 comments:

Karrissa Winward said...

That is so sad dad!! I am so sorry!

Gram said...

Boy! that wasn't a fun flight!! Wow, I am so sorry that it turned out like that for you. Enjoy your bed tonight.

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