Many years ago, I had to go from San Jose to Monterey for a retreat. I didn’t have a car, but there was a really cheap flight from SJC to MRY. The distance between the two airports is 51 miles and it was about a 20 minutes flight. So I booked it and soon was boarding the Air California 737 anticipating this very short hop to my destination. The plane was bound for Ontario, CA, with a stop in Monterey. We took off from SJC and were soon on final approach to MRY. I could see out my window that it was very foggy outside – not at all unusual for Monterey. Everything seemed to be going normally – the gear went down, the flaps were extended, and I could just begin to see a faint hint on things on the ground through the fog.
Suddenly, the pilot pulled up, raised the gear and began climbing out. After a few minutes he came on the PA to announce that the ceiling had dropped below the allowable limit, so he was going around for another try. Well, the ceiling kept lifting and then falling again such that we tried to land 4 times, each time having to go around. We then went into a holding pattern for about half an hour waiting for the ceiling to lift. Finally it did, so we went in for a 5th try, only to have the ceiling drop again before we could land. At this point, the pilot apologized to those of us who were going to Monterey (only about 5 of us as it turned out), and said he needed to proceed on to Ontario. So we did, landing there about 45 minutes later.
Once on the ground, they booked me on a return flight to SJC, and then on another later flight that was going to MRY and then on to Ontario. So after an hour, I flew back to SJC and waited 45 minutes for the next flight to MRY. We made 3 tries to land and MRY, but again could not get in because of the fog. The pilot who had been informed of our previous plight decided to go back to SJC and drop us off to take a bus ride to MRY. So we flew back to SJC, and were taxiing back to the gate, when the pilot came on the PA with good news. “Monterey has cleared up, and it should now be no problem to get in there.” So we taxied straight back to the runway and took off for Monterey, which, of course, was fogged in again by the time we got there. This time they didn’t even bother to try, they just flew all of us to Ontario.
So not to belabor the story – that day I ended up taking 4 round trips between SJC and Ontario with I lost count of how many attempts to land at MRY. I’d estimate more than 15. I finally ended up spending the night at the San Jose Airport (they would not pay for a hotel because weather is not their fault and it was not worth a bus ride home and back) – and arrived at MRY on the first flight the next morning (without incident) more than 24 hours after I first embarked. I probably could have walked that 51 miles in less time.
Demotage
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