Uh Oh! Not AGAIN!!!

After yesterday’s cancelled flight I found myself back at the airport today. My reassignment was my favourite late Washington trip so I was able to go to church this morning and then went straight to the airport.

We checked in just before 3pm, briefed and went to the plane. Before passengers got on we found out we had a maintenance issue. Different flight, different type of aircraft and different destination. But not a dissimilar issue from yesterday.

Of course sometimes maintenance issues get resolved very quickly, so we got everything set up and ready to go even though the boarding of passengers was postponed. And so we waited. And waited. And waited. There was a lot of activity with mechanics back and forth, in and out of the flight deck. Finally when I saw one go down the ‘hatch’ to check equipment there (by the very front door to the plane) I knew we were in trouble. Sure enough. By 815 we had cancelled!

Never in 33 years of being a Flight Attendant can I remember cancelling two days in a row. You just can’t make this stuff up!

So off I went home. No more reassignments for me as we have no short trips at our Heathrow base and I can only be worked into one day off, no more. I was home by 10pm and after two days of hanging around for hours on end I was surprisingly exhausted and collapsed into bed within minutes of walking in the door. I tell you, flying real trips, even with jet lag, is easier than just hanging around.

At least my cancelled plans for Monday are back on!

P.S. I saw the mechanic from yesterday’s flight and he said they finally fixed the plane from yesterday at 10pm and the aircraft left earlier today with no further problems.