Air Disasters

This week was Allen's first work trip for PNNL. It was kind of a disaster. He was scheduled to fly to Richland, WA on Monday, with a short layover in Minneapolis, in order to make a manager’s retreat on Tuesday. But his 40-minute layover turned into 1.5 hours, then 2.5 hours due to a flat tire on the plane, then into the next morning due to a missing flight crew. Allen grabbed a hotel room in Minneapolis and headed back to the airport the next morning at 5:30 am CST in the hope that he could make the second half of the retreat.

But then that flight was delayed another 2.5 hours due to the still missing crew. Then 4 hours due to weather. Then they finally boarded but made Allen check his carryon bag since it was such a small plane. Things finally seemed like all would be ok, until they tried to land in foggy Richland, got within twenty feet of the runway, pulled up and circled around to try again, almost landed again but pulled up and diverted to Portland, OR. Because the fog was getting worse in Richland, they cancelled the flight until the following day, which meant Allen, having already missed the retreat, would now miss a full day of meetings unless he took action. So, he rented a car and drive the four hours to Richland, though that meant that he wouldn’t have his luggage. "No problem," said Delta, "we’ll drop it off when we land the following day." Tuesday night, after a long day and a long drive Allen arrived in Richland, WA in order to make his Wednesday and Thursday meetings… but without any of his clothes or toiletries. 

The bag didn’t arrive the next day either, having stayed for some reason in Portland. I suggested Allen at least find a Target and pick up some fresh underwear, undershirts and socks, particularly since the following day they were taking his “portrait” for PNNL, but Allen was resolute and so headed off Thursday morning in the same outfit he’d been wearing since 4:30 am CST on Tuesday for a photoshoot to be immortalized on the PNNL wall. 

Having now finished all of his meetings, Allen returned to his hotel room Thursday night to discover that his bag was still not there. It was, however, at the Richland airport (unclear why Delta didn't deliver it). Allen planned to just pick it up the next morning on his way back out of principle, but I convinced him that it would be better to drive the 20 minutes to the airport in order to have some fresh clothes to fly home in. So he skipped dinner (opting instead for bagels and yogurt from the hotel’s breakfast bar) and finally got his bag with all his toiletries and fresh clothes. There was a brief moment of celebration as he planned to head to bed in order to be relaxed for his flight home Friday morning.

Only then he got the call that his flight had been cancelled and he was being rebooked on a later flight that would get him home Saturday morning. He was pretty frustrated, but eventually the PNNL people found him an alternative flight so he slept in and then drove 2.5 hours to Spokane, WA where he and his bag (which he was not required to check on the flight home) then flew to Minneapolis before finally landing in DC after which he arrived home around midnight Friday night, where he immediately crashed.

At least he doesn't have to go back until next quarter...