Houston.............we got a problem...............

We apologise dear readers for the delay in posting this blog. The first draft got lost in Bagkok. The Captain of BA9 must have uttered words very similar to the heading as we flew somewhere over eastern Europe en-route to Sydney. But I get ahead of myself – let's start at the beginning. On the morning we were due to depart, we had to make a quick detour to Ellesmere to pick up something that should have already arrived. Not to worry , we had left plenty of time - Heathrow will normally take about 3.5 hours from Cockshutt, 4.5 hours on a bad day and we were leaving at midday for a 7pm deadline for checkin. It started raining as I was packing the car and got steadily worse as we progressed along the M54. It was so bad that traffic was seized up on the M6 and it took us an hour 15 mins to do what would normally have taken 45 minutes. The M6 toll was running freely but the rain was so bad that we had to keep the speed down to 60 or less at times. We kept hearing reports of problems on our intended route down the M40, so against my better judgement I was persuaded to re-route down the M1. I was convinced that the M25 would be static by the time we got there on a Friday. It must be said that the navigator was right and I was wrong. (It must also be noted that the only reason I agreed is that experience has shown this is usually the case). We duly rolled into Heathrow car park just after 6 and quickly notified the family of our status. (We discovered we had got off lightly – Ben had had to abandon his car and taken 2 hours to get home while poor Ellie we discovered later didn't make it 'till 9:30.) Having been clever and checked in on-line the night before, apparently all we had to do was drop our bags at the fast bag drop and we could get through the checks and settled in for a quiet wait in the departure lounge. We hadn't recognised that this is the busiest Friday of the year and Heathrow was heaving. The fast baggage drop was we discovered a relative term. We had a long queue to negotiate, first for the baggage drop then for the security checks then for the passport control. We finally made it to the departure lounge at about 8pm. Not to worry we said to each other, we're on holiday – what's a little hold up. We were about to begin to discover.............
At ticket collection we had been told that the gate number hadn't been allocated – we should watch the screens. We had a meal then settled down to wait for the 10pm flight- and wait. By 9:55 we were getting a bit anxious as we had heard absolutely nothing over the announcement system and there was nothing on the screen. I approached one of the counters at a gate and asked if they had any idea – they checked their screen – apparently the aircraft was being towed to its departure gate but would need provisioning and loading. A delay of some 45 minutes was likely; we thought OK what's a little delay, after all we were due to have a stopover of almost 3 hours at Bangkok, perhaps this could be reduced? We settled down by the gate expected until we were called at around midnight and actually took off about 45 minutes later. The Captain apologised profusely for the delays which were caused by the flight being 'lost in the system' and the poor crew had been stranded without a pick-up bus for the same reason. After our evening meal had been served at 2:00 we settled down for a bit of kip before Bangkok. The Captain had taken on extra fuel and would be aiming to make up some time. I noticed we were flying at about 700mph, which I think is just under the speed of sound.
We duly touched down at the stylish new Bangkok International Airport about 2 hours late at 6pm local time;at which point the Captain apologised that we hadn't made up any time – 'as you may have noticed' one engine had developed problems and been cut 2 hours into our flight so we were not able to fly as quickly. He warned us that the engine would need attention and repair before we would be able to continue. Never mind we thought, we're on holiday, getting to Sydney a few hours late will not matter. We had to disembark from the aircraft anyway but although we would be boarding from the same gate, the Authorities presumably take the view that there is no point in having a new airport if people don't enjoy it. So off we walked from the extremes of the airport to the centre and back to the gate, passing through the security screens, bag checks etc to get to the departure gate. We watched as engineers peered at the engine; the new crew tried to keep us informed of progress but information was at best sporadic. Finally the decision was made that the onward trip to Sydney was cancelled. We would be put up in the Airport Novotel overnight until onward transport could be arranged. Tired, depressed and dispirited we made our way back again to the central hub but this time to check out. We had to wait some time for this as the Thai authorities refused to let us into the hall until a new team was assembled specifically to deal with us. We then had to queue for some time to get through the customs controls – none of us had visas, so the Thai authorities insisted on holding on to our passports if we wanted to leave the airport building. No-one was happy about this but we had no choice; 100 years ago this would probably have resulted in a gunboat being dispatched! When we got to the hotel, there was the inevitable queue with 300 people checking in at once. We finally made it to our room at 10:50pm local; 10 minutes before the restaurant was due to close – and we were hungry. But the hotel kept the restaurant open for us. Crawled into bed and crashed out. We were told that there would be a meeting at 1pm to tell us what was going to be done.

Novotel Bangkok Airport lobby

By early Sunday morning, one or two people who had not been satisfied with waiting had got seats and the rest were getting restless, so the Hotel management asked the airline to send someone to address a hastily arranged conference at 10am. We were put in the picture; the aircraft was to be repatriated for repair. We would be found flights with anyone else that could give us a seat in the priority according to the price we paid. We were warned that it may take a day or two as this was a busy weekend; there were no spare 747's to take us on, few airlines operated direct to Sydney from Bangkok and if anyone were prepared to choose an alternative destination, it would alleviate the situation. The meeting was repeated at 1pm to make sure everyone had the information. We let them know that if we couldn't get a flight to Sydney in good time, we would prefer to go direct to Christchurch where we were due to meet up with Ollie and Ang on Wednesday. Some people who were not under any time pressures accepted an offer of transport to a resort on the coast for a couple of days. The rest of us were told that we would need to be ready to be available to rush for a flight at 45 minutes notice.

The pool outside the room

So we chilled as much as we could. In fact the cage in which we were trapped was quite a spectacularly gilded one even if it was not where we wanted to be. By the following morning, there was an apparent discrepancy between what we were being told by the airline and what people were able to achieve themselves on the net; the manager was duly summoned for a 1pm meeting to face the music with many people extremely angry. Poor guy took a terrible verbal hammering and his protests that facing us was taking him away from helping us fell on deaf ears; this was our second day and we had already been overtaken by people on the flight the day after us – we were taking no prisoners. After some time he was interrupted – there were 4 seats on Singapore Airlines to Sydney via Christchurch. We were apparently already booked on it and had to be at the airport immediately for a check-in by 3. Although we hadn't unpacked, we still had to get our things together hurriedly and raced to catch the shuttle bus with a mother and daughter, escorted by airline staff to collect our passports and get to the check-in desk. We arrived 2 minutes after it had closed. Thwarted at every turn! We were then whisked round to the airline desk and were checked in to the same flight that we would have been on 2 days ago! When our boarding passes were issued, we were escorted to the customs formalities by a girl who admitted she was on her first day! We had a grand tour of the airport before we got to the departure lounge. As the time of the flight drew near more and more of our friends from the stricken flight arrived and it was clear that a decision had been made to move us all without further delay.

The flight from London landed to great cheers and after it had been reprovisioned and loaded we were invited to board to even more cheers. But it wasn't over yet. The cold hand of fate had more in store for us. After initial boarding checks, the Captain told us he was having problems starting an engine; the 'plane was taken off the stand to be started on the apron. This didn't work, the cabin systems were shut down to divert energy to the start, so the cabin got hot and a lady fainted. We were taken back to the gate and when the lady was recovered, the engine was started at the gate. We were towed back to the apron ready for permission to fly and while we were waiting, one of the passengers became very sick; we had to wait for a decision from the airline medical team about what to do. He was to be medivaced. We returned to the gate to disembark the poor unfortunate, get on some cleaners and take off his baggage. We also took on some more fuel! Because of Australian concern about importation of unwanted insect life, each time the doors were opened, the crew had to walk up and down the aircraft with insecticide to fumigate it! I couldn't help hoping that none had stowed away in my case while it was open at the hotel or Australia could be in for trouble. Finally we made it past the apron and out onto the runway ready for take-off, two days and two hours late. As we finally made it into the air, the prisoners of the gilded cage raised another shout; we had been beginning to think we would have to return to the tender ministrations of Louis again. But what is a little delay when you're on holiday? As we settled down for the flight to Sydney we thought it would be good to watch 'Amazing Grace' with the inflight video on demand, needless to say it didn't work. So we mused on the effect for our truncated time in Sydney on our never-to-be-repeated-holiday-of-a-lifetime. Our 3 days of sightseeing would have to be condensed into one; we decided on just 4 things we would do: see the Opera House, see Sydney Harbour Bridge and do a harbour tour. We would have our anniversary dinner, as originally planned in Guillaumes in one of the Opera House shells, overlooking the harbour and the bridge. We should have known better........................

written by

rickandsuejohnson on July 31, 2007 from Christchurch, New Zealand

from the travel blog: From the Shire to Middle Earth and back

Send a Compliment

Well, you would have been bored if it had all gone smoothly- what would you have had to write??!
All's well that ends well.....
Zxx

written by Zoe on July 31, 2007

Ben arrived this afternoon looking hale and hearty in about a couple of hours we shall be off to the festivities in Bronygarth. Interesting to hear from Ben about their trip to Ireland. Interesting to read on the blog of ollie and Ang's about superman's diving exploits (both above and below water). I also understand from Ben that Ollie is now a 'certified' scuba diver - is there no end to lads potential. Looking forward to seeing you both sunday week. Lots of love Dad

written by Jack Morris on August 11, 2007

comment on this...