The itenerary stated that I was to arrive in Seattle at 12:30pm. That is not at all what happened. Due to a comedy of issues, our flight arrived 18 hours late, and we were one of the top stories on the local news.
Everything went fine until we were over Seattle and ready to land. I noticed the sun going around the plane, and just as I began to realize we were in a holding pattern, the captain said that we are unable to land due to fog in Seattle. Most other planes are able to land, but the older DC-10 we were on was ill equipped aparantly.
At about 1pm fuel was running low, so the decision was made to divert to Lake Moses, WA, near the center of Washington State - a former military base.
The small Grant County terminal is not equipped to handle customs, or un-cleared passengers, so we sit on the plane. Then we're informed that because the crew has been on duty the maximum time allowed by federal law, they are not able to fly us to Seattle. Early evening.
A new crew must be flow from Minnapolis, MN where NorthWest's base is. The trouble this time is that upon taxing to take off, a tire is blown. This causes another couple of hours in delay. Now it's around midnight.
I think around 2am we are boarding the plane again. The plane is de-iced. Preperations seem to be taking forever. Then the announcement comes - There is a problem with "arming" the back left door. This involves some rod that is inserted into the door to automate the release of the emergency slide. The door itself is fine. They let us know that another plane may be prepared to remove us in case the door cannot be fixed.
After another hour the door is fixed, Naturally, the plane must be de-iced again. We FINALLY take off for Seattle. From then things finally went as expected. Extra customs personnel had to be brought on for our arrival. Upon ascendinng the escalator I was met with news crews and cameras that I ducked. My good friend Peter who has been at the airport off and on since the beginning of the ordeal managed to get on the news. He said the time was not unpleasant, so at least it was an interesting experience for him :-)
Stories in the paper about our trip:
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