It was oh-dark-thirty when my sister and JFA called with the bad news: they were still in Chicago. I was about 40 minutes from the Dublin airport at this time.
They had been on the plane all right, strapped in, the safety dance done, when they felt a little bump. JFA figured they had taxiied over a pothole.
Nope. Another plane was parked improperly and its wing hit the tail of my friends' plane. None of the crew seemed to notice this until passengers on one side of the plane lit up the attendant-call buttons like a pinball machine. (That part of the story concerns me a little bit.)
So they all got off the plane and stood in many lines queues until they got a hotel room. This was about 1 a.m. their time ... and the next plane wouldn't take off until 6:30 p.m. that evening.
But it's all relative. Some of their fellow passengers had been on a flight Sunday night that was cancelled due to engine trouble.
Many dark jokes about "the luck of the Irish" circulated around the cabin as all passengers finally took off on Monday evening. I'm very grateful that JFA, an experienced traveller and calming presence, was with my sister through the whole thing.
I also have a more charitable attitude toward easyjet, which at least has never sideswiped another plane. Leaving long after the scheduled departure time may be part of this safety strategy.
Comments