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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 January 2011 - Volume 02<br>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">From: <span class="gd"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc.</span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span class="go"><<a href="mailto:roger.thijs@euro-support.be">roger.thijs@euro-support.be</a>></span><br>
Subject: <img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ron/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif" width="1" border="0" height="1"><span class="gi">LL-L "Travels"</span><br style="">
<br style="">
</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I'm at my hotel, when
writing this, in Wilmington, Delaware
(or technically more correct in an unincorporated part of the Brandywine
Hundred in New Castle County in Delaware.<br>
I planned Saturday afternoon for shopping and Sunday for some tourism, but I
lost my Saturday afternoon and stayed in the North of the state for shopping
today on Sunday.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">The reason I lost my
Saturday afternoon had to do with the flight.<br>
Our flight US Airways 751 didn't get the news (there has been some shooting in Arizona) but we were filmed and to see at some local
stations in Bangor, Maine.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">We left Brussels
on time on 10:40 am CET for planned arrival at 1:30 pm EST in Philadelphia.<br>
(There is 6 hrs time difference between CET and EST).<br>
The plane was a 757 with about 190 seats, fully booked.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Shortly before noon the
pilot announced we would have a stop in Bangor for refueling, wich would take
just about half an hour for refueling and deicing afterwards (it was snowing
over there) and we landed immediately afterwards at noon. Bangor is known for last minute stops for
kicking out people from the no-fly list, detected too late. So I thought this
was the real whereabout.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Bangor is a small airport with I guess 8 gates and a
military section (most planes I saw during the taxiing were military). Civil
aircraft I saw were small planes for local connections.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">The pilot announced they
also had to fix something with the flaps, a problem that was detected during
the landing.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">After half an hour at 12:30
pm EST we got a warmed-up sandwich with turkey, which was the second
"meal" we would get anyhow on this flight. They clearly ran out of
food after this. The front door was opened (though it freezed, I was happy not
being in business class) but protected by two armed custom officers.<br>
At 14:50 pm the crew got two rolls of toilet paper from the outside, since at
the backside we were running out of this precious stuff.<br>
The pilot kept us informed:<br>
- we had to wait for 45 minutes for getting in a mechanic<br>
- the mechanic finally was not a mechanic but a liason person for phoning for
advice from a call center.<br>
- the pilot decided to contact himself some mechanics at the US Airways repair
shop in Pittsburg<br>
- at 15:05 everything seemed OK, just 30 more minutes were needed for the
paperwork<br>
- later he said he needed some info from the laboratory (??)<br>
- In the mean time they kept us in good spirit inside the plane, by showing
strongly patriottic films and documentaries.<br>
- at 16:05 they did some more testing, the flaps went vertically down an
remained immobile.<br>
Negotiations with the authorities had started for letting us out of the plane.
They finally agreed to turn the (local) transit hall (there were no additional
seats at the gates, so this area is common for all gates during the day) into
an international zone</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At 16:35 EST we started
taxiing and at 17:05 hrs we were in our confined area with armed officers at
all doors.<br>
They promised some food, however it toke time since it all had to checked by
security before it could pass into our enclosed area.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Finally we got some coffee
and some chips at 18:05 pm .<br>
I got a bag of 1.5 oz (42.5 g) of Lay's Classic Potato Chips and and a bag of 1
oz (28 g) of Ritz bits (small peanut butter cakes). However since the first in
the queue got/toke 2 bags, nothing was left over for the second half of the
group.<br>
5 Minutes later we also got Pepsi, which is better to combine with Chips than
coffee (for as far that is was not too late for the chips).<br>
All food came through a door with two armed guards at our side and 2 to 3 armed
guys with dogs at the outside.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At 18:40 hrs it was annouced
that a replacement plane was on the way and it was 4th in the row for take-off
in Charlotte.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I had a car reserved at
Hertz at Philadelphia
airport and I tried to phone them through the number I got at my reservation
sheet. It toke me several trials and 30 minutes before getting a human voice. I
came to choices as e.g. between a "flat tire" and "lost
keys" etc, but not to a menu item for announcing and discussing a late
arrival. I finally got a human voice and learned that the Hertz service area at
PHL would close at 2 am.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At 18:45 hrs we got pizza's,
quite a lot, but several people had only had a little pasta after departure in Brussels (at 12 hrs CET or
6 CET) and a warmed up sandwich at noon EST. At 19:05 hrs we also got some
sandwiches but most of us were well fed with pizza.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">At 21:10 hrs the plane from Charlotte landed; at 21:55
hrs we were in the air and at 23:10 hrs we landed. I finally still got my car
and went to bed at 2 am.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Regards,<br>
Roger</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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