LL-L "Travels" 2011.01.09 (01) [EN]

Mon Jan 10 01:29:50 UTC 2011

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L O W L A N D S - L - 09 January 2011 - Volume 02
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L "Travels"

 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.
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.

The reason I lost my Saturday afternoon had to do with the flight.
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.

We left Brussels on time on 10:40 am CET for planned arrival at 1:30 pm EST
in Philadelphia.
(There is 6 hrs time difference between CET and EST).
The plane was a 757 with about 190 seats, fully booked.

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.

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.

The pilot announced they also had to fix something with the flaps, a problem
that was detected during the landing.

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.
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.
The pilot kept us informed:
- we had to wait for 45 minutes for getting in a mechanic
- the mechanic finally was not a mechanic but a liason person for phoning
for advice from a call center.
- the pilot decided to contact himself some mechanics at the US Airways
repair shop in Pittsburg
- at 15:05 everything seemed OK, just 30 more minutes were needed for the
paperwork
- later he said he needed some info from the laboratory (??)
- In the mean time they kept us in good spirit inside the plane, by showing
strongly patriottic films and documentaries.
- at 16:05 they did some more testing, the flaps went vertically down an
remained immobile.
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

At 16:35 EST we started taxiing and at 17:05 hrs we were in our confined
area with armed officers at all doors.
They promised some food, however it toke time since it all had to checked by
security before it could pass into our enclosed area.

Finally we got some coffee and some chips at 18:05 pm .
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.
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).
All food came through a door with two armed guards at our side and 2 to 3
armed guys with dogs at the outside.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Regards,
Roger

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