Manchester, England 2nd June 2004
After overcoming a few difficulties
with the flight details, saying goodbye to family I am waiting to board
Flight CO21 bound for Newark, USA. This is the plane waiting for us.
I was told it would take
ages when I arrived in the USA, to pass through immigration, customs and
security due to the panics over 9/11. The plane arrived at the gate at
12.30pm and I was standing in the departures area again at 1.10pm after
all these plus having had to walk a long way AND reclaim my baggage AND
have it re-checked.
The next leg was not so easy; sat on the plane at departure time the Captain informed us that we were waiting for 2 passengers to arrive on a intercontinental flight. They duly arrived 15 minutes later, we backed out from the gate and a passenger stood up and stated that he couldn't fly and needed to get off. The Captain told us later it was due to claustrophobia and it was better not to have him aboard than have a potential problem later. We returned to the gate and he got off, his luggage was taken from the hold also. Again we started, but by now we had missed our "slot" and had to queue to take off starting at about 24th position.
Uneventful flight, snow on
the Rockies, 9.00pm arrival in Seattle. Beautiful sunset over the mountains
but too tired to get my camera out.