Monday, July 17, 2006

When getting to Brisbane is neither getting to Sydney or for that matter Brisbane

I think I jinxed myself. Fog has rolled in again in Sydney, closing down the airport and condemning all incoming flights to time on the ground in Melbourne and Brisbane. In my case – Brisbane. There was a tortuous moment in our flight at 6.45am Sydney time (with about 60 minutes to go to get to Sydney) the pilot announced that there was fog in Sydney and that we “might” have to turned to Brisbane. He was going to give the weather until 7.10am to clear. If at 7.10am we felt the plane turn right it meant we were not going to make it home anytime soon. You could see the whole plane sweating over the clock. Each minute that passed, the agitation built and the clock watching intensified. Then at exactly 7.10am the plane turned right, Sydney became further away and the plane let out a collective groan. Now I am in bad shape – left New York 23 hours ago and am still hours from home, but there are those on the plane worse off. There are some poor bastards on this plane whose ultimate destination is Brisbane. Why are they poor bastards – because they are not allowed to “deplane” here. For some technical/safety/blah blah reason a diverted plane cannot let people off. These guys have to wait on the ground in Brisbane with the rest of us, then fly down to Sydney where we will have to wait in the air with the other planes for a landing spot, clear customs wait for a connecting flight back to Brisbane, fly back and finally make it home. It doesn’t make me feel better that there are those worse off but am looking for some good news.

UPDATE - took 39 hours door-to-door to get home

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