Stuck in Chicago on labor day weekend - UA974
I'm at the great O' Hare International Airport in Chicago right now. I decided to purchase an "all day pass" to the WiFi service after they announced that my flight to Newark, NJ was delayed by 2 hours. Below are the events that transpired in the last few hours:
In stead of boarding at 8:30, I boarded United Airlines flight UA974 at 11 pm. Ready to take iff at 11:15, a Chinese lady sitting 2 rows in front of me on the other side of the aisle called an airhostess and informed her that she could smell something strange. The hostess called the 2nd in command captian of the aircraft. What followed was a long and tiresmome wait, at the end of which the captain announced that they had decided to go back to the gate to get the plane checked out. At the gatre, two engineers walked in and did some looking around near our portion of the plane. At 11:45 pm, the captian announced they were about to do an engine restart to cehck if the smell was real. So the engines were rebooted. There was no smell. After a while, the captian shut off the engines again. Suddenly a number of people declared inunision that they could smell it. It was the smell of oil. Unmistakable. The captain proceeded to inform us that the engineers were on the phone to the engineering unit base in San Francisco to figure out the problem.
By this time, a number of passengers begun to get restless. One guy asked a hostess if he could get off the plane and take a flight next morning. There was murmur. This was like a movie scene. (I'm not flying United again I think. Just want to get back home now). At 12:15 am the pilot announced they had decided the aircraft was out of service and that there would be another plane at 1:30 am. We then proceeded to deplane at gate B7 and walked to gate B18 where we were told the other plane would be. After a wait of 25 minutes, we were told that the plane at gate B18 was a test plane and there wasnt enought crew to handle it. We were asked to move yet another time to gate B10 where, we were told, an aircraft would arive at 1:15 am and we would be flown out to Newark at 1:30 am. It is now 12: 48 am. I really hope this works out and they dont end up messing our bags in between.
Looking forward to a long sleep tomorrow. Thank god its a weekend.
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Update at 12:55 am:
We have just been informed that the plane we are waiting from will not be here untill 1:40 am. The revised departure time for Newark has been set at 2:15 am. This would get me into Newark at 5:20 am. They have also given us the option of taking the next available United Airlines flight to Newark with an available seat on it. This flight happens to be at 6:30 PM tomorrow. Inceidentally, all restaurants and snack bars in the terminal are closed. The authorities say they are trying to arrange drinking water for us but they do not have access to it!
In stead of boarding at 8:30, I boarded United Airlines flight UA974 at 11 pm. Ready to take iff at 11:15, a Chinese lady sitting 2 rows in front of me on the other side of the aisle called an airhostess and informed her that she could smell something strange. The hostess called the 2nd in command captian of the aircraft. What followed was a long and tiresmome wait, at the end of which the captain announced that they had decided to go back to the gate to get the plane checked out. At the gatre, two engineers walked in and did some looking around near our portion of the plane. At 11:45 pm, the captian announced they were about to do an engine restart to cehck if the smell was real. So the engines were rebooted. There was no smell. After a while, the captian shut off the engines again. Suddenly a number of people declared inunision that they could smell it. It was the smell of oil. Unmistakable. The captain proceeded to inform us that the engineers were on the phone to the engineering unit base in San Francisco to figure out the problem.
By this time, a number of passengers begun to get restless. One guy asked a hostess if he could get off the plane and take a flight next morning. There was murmur. This was like a movie scene. (I'm not flying United again I think. Just want to get back home now). At 12:15 am the pilot announced they had decided the aircraft was out of service and that there would be another plane at 1:30 am. We then proceeded to deplane at gate B7 and walked to gate B18 where we were told the other plane would be. After a wait of 25 minutes, we were told that the plane at gate B18 was a test plane and there wasnt enought crew to handle it. We were asked to move yet another time to gate B10 where, we were told, an aircraft would arive at 1:15 am and we would be flown out to Newark at 1:30 am. It is now 12: 48 am. I really hope this works out and they dont end up messing our bags in between.
Looking forward to a long sleep tomorrow. Thank god its a weekend.
+
---
Update at 12:55 am:
We have just been informed that the plane we are waiting from will not be here untill 1:40 am. The revised departure time for Newark has been set at 2:15 am. This would get me into Newark at 5:20 am. They have also given us the option of taking the next available United Airlines flight to Newark with an available seat on it. This flight happens to be at 6:30 PM tomorrow. Inceidentally, all restaurants and snack bars in the terminal are closed. The authorities say they are trying to arrange drinking water for us but they do not have access to it!
1 Comments:
Holy Guacamoly!!. You ought to sue them for
1) Endangering your life by putting you on a leaky plane
2) Taking you for a ride
and last but not the least
3) One stressful night
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