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Got back from vacation late last night, on a relatively uneventful pair of flights. The story was a bit different two weeks ago when Casa Brillig headed to Tulsa...
My sister-in-law drove us to the Manchester, NH airport where our flight to Tulsa - by way of Detroit - was to begin. Traveling from Manchester instead of Boston saved us nearly $75/ticket, and leaving the car at her house saved us parking. So we arrived earlyl, checked our bags and went to grab coffee and watch our plane arrive.
First concern we should have had was when the plane was delayed by 30 minutes. OK, we thought... still enough time to make the connection, after all we had close to 2 hours layover.
Fast forward another hour, and they tell us the plane is approaching. All we know is that the first plane had a "mechanical error" and this is a new plane, hence the delay. All's still good and they say we can make our connection.
Then the plane zooms over the airport after aborting the landing, circles around and eventually lands. We give thanks, as it taxis up, that we get a new flight crew. And that we are leaving the incompetent Jetway Driver in Manchester. The one that can't get the thing lined up, wasting another 5 minutes.
We land in Detroit, juuuust ahead of our connecting flight's departure. The crew says we "might" make the flight if we run. And if the Jetway Driver can get the @#$% thing lined up so we can deplane. We get off the plane in Terminal A, and ran to Terminal C. We estimate a little under a mile. In 6 minutes, taking advantage of all possible moving walkways, and sending K1 ahead at full speed as we neared the gate.
She saw them close the door. And they wouldn't wait. Said they knew there were 5 people not on board but added "no one could have made that run in 6 minutes."
Once we regained the ability to breathe, walk, and turned some color other than beet red, they booked us on the next flight... in four hours. And gave us spiffy meal vouchers for our inconvenience. You have no idea how much a whole... $6 buys you at an airport. Really.
After whiling the time away in Detroit, we finally boarded the plane to Tulsa. Row 1, and we had fun watching the pilot and copilot do their preflight check. Until...
CRASH
What the heck was THAT?! said the pilot, leaping out of his seat. Another crash and the pilot, copilot and flight attendants all were screaming STOP down at...
The Jetway Driver who hit the @#$% plane and broke the door. Yup, a trifecta of FAIL. Quadrille, or whatever is the right word, if you count the aborted landing.
I <3 the pilot, however. Whateverthehell his airline and/or ground control was trying to tell him to do, I heard him say "There is NO way we are doing THAT" and 10 minutes later... after they figured out how to get us out over the structurally unsound door assembly... he got us onto a new plane and we took off. Landed in Tulsa a mere 5.5 hours late and wanted to kiss the ground.</p>
Here's a picture of the pilot taking pictures of the door. FYI, it's supposed to be on the ground. The problem was the Jetway Driver destroyed the mechanism for getting it back up to the airplane.
For anyone who didn't follow our saga via FB and Twitter updates... care to guess what airline?
= = = = =
No Jetway Drivers here, just a collection of well-deserving comment nominations!
From zett:
Thanks to Knarfc for summarizing so succinctly davidsirota's diary.
From JanF:
In Thursday's Morning Feature: Just the Beliefs, Ma'am. Morning Feature about beliefs and facts, addisnana added this excellent suggestion: "I'm waiting for someone to say, "The republicans are waging class warfare for the rich." I want to see the sputtering refutations come flying out of their mouths."
From Dragon5616:
Stranger than fiction: mem from somerville provided this hilarious tidbit in an open thread today.
From bronte17:
Detroit Mark has an astute observation in the front page post by kos Phil Griffin and MSNBC.
From ChocolateChris:
sherlyle on the GOP embracing the Tea Party made me chuckle.
From BeninSC:
I am certain I have never nominated the 1594th comment in a thread for Top Comments, but this effort by Hunter has me making an exception. He was ... dismayed by the progression of comments, and wished to articulate that, which he did very very well.
(Please note that I am under no circumstances recommending further reading to see what he's talking about. Life is short, which is his point, I think. Read his comment and then get back to your productive life, is my recommendation. ;) )
From Yours Truly, brillig:
Dartagnan reminds us not to take some people for granted.
itsbenj's yeesh is about what thought while reading DemFromCT's front-page poll analysis. Helpcomputer's response is a scarily good analogy.
Huge thanks to virgomusic for being my Mojoway Driver tonite!! Not a single mishap as the data generated via the magic strings and spreadsheets of cskendrick and sardonyx flew my way via the intertubes!
Top 30 Comments excluding tip jars, first comments, pooties and stuff:
1) It's hard for me to articulate in a by nyceve — 157
2) Don't like Uberbah, how about Bill Moyers (embed) by divineorder — 145
3) This actually directly reminds me by Dauphin — 122
4) That picture... by Dahankster — 119
5) Because he was opening a new battery by second gen — 117
6) shorter version: no, you can't. by Uberbah — 99
7) You're gonna love this: by Kimberley — 98
8) But not surprising by Dallasdoc — 97
9) Teabags are the new white hoods by MinistryOfTruth — 95
10) Someone in that other diary by GlowNZ — 91
11) It Ain't "Over" 'Til it's Over by JekyllnHyde — 89
12) Viktor Bryukhanov was sentenced to 10 years. by vets74 — 83
13) Keith Olbermann Deserves it by JekyllnHyde — 82
14) I see you're back with more bullshit hand waiving by Uberbah — 81
15) I hear you by Diogenes2008 — 80
16) Nobody raises money in August. by Adam B — 79
17) as one who has a graduate degree in Rhetoric by miss SPED — 77
18) "Hold mah beer and watch this." by Dauphin — 76
19) Tim Wise nails this by MinistryOfTruth — 76
20) Look at annual salary, health bennies by Cassiodorus — 75
21) thankyouTHANKYOUthankyou ad finitum...!.. by TULIPS4DOLPHINS — 75
22) Oh. My. God. by Fishgrease — 73
23) What digby said. by Dallasdoc — 72
24) Very, Very Interesting by webranding — 71
25) WellPoint cancels breast cancer policies. by CIndyCasella — 71
26) I agree with you. I followed the links, by CS in AZ — 70
27) math could not bear to stay silent any more on by math4barack — 70
28) But they are covering staged black by christine20 — 70
29) This is becoming a pattern with Obama by Paul in Berkeley — 66
30) The rich get to go on vacation. by Cassiodorus — 65
31) Smoking gun. by lgmcp — 65
Top 30 Comments with no exclusions, aka the Tip Jar list :-):
1) Tip Jar by Fishgrease — 417
2) Tips for Keith and his mother by Diogenes2008 — 399
3) Tips for calling it what it is by MinistryOfTruth — 373
4) Tip Jar by Cassiodorus — 369
5) Tip Jar by nyceve — 368
6) Tip Jar by math4barack — 327
7) Tip Jar by cherbear — 293
8) Do you copy, over? by Crashing Vor — 290
9) Tip Jar by Christian Dem in NC — 252
10) Tip Jar by tim wise — 214
11) Tips for my A/C repair man. It was Hell here. by FishOutofWater — 160
12) It's hard for me to articulate in a by nyceve — 157
13) Don't like Uberbah, how about Bill Moyers (embed) by divineorder — 145
14) Tips for all living things by hester — 135
15) This actually directly reminds me by Dauphin — 122
16) That picture... by Dahankster — 119
17) Because he was opening a new battery by second gen — 117
18) We're living in interesting times: by RLMiller — 107
19) shorter version: no, you can't. by Uberbah — 99
20) You're gonna love this: by Kimberley — 98
21) But not surprising by Dallasdoc — 97
22) Teabags are the new white hoods by MinistryOfTruth — 95
23) Someone in that other diary by GlowNZ — 91
24) It Ain't "Over" 'Til it's Over by JekyllnHyde — 89
25) Viktor Bryukhanov was sentenced to 10 years. by vets74 — 83
26) Keith Olbermann Deserves it by JekyllnHyde — 82
27) I see you're back with more bullshit hand waiving by Uberbah — 81
28) My deepest condolences by Sandy on Signal — 80
29) I hear you by Diogenes2008 — 80
30) Nobody raises money in August. by Adam B — 79