In January of 2003 I was flying to Amsterdam from Johannesburg, South Africa on KLM/Northwest. The flight was on time getting to Amsterdam. It had been snowing in Amsterdam. I had an approx 4 hour layover in Amsterdam before boarding a flight for Dulles Airport. Boarded the plane on time and the plane left the gate pretty much on time. We were told by the Captain that there was a delay at the deicing stand, but we should not be too late taking off. Well, this “delay” turned into 6 hours. All this time we were still on the plane. Of course people were not fed and the passengers were getting irate. At one point the Captain came on and said that someone had thrown a package of peanuts at one of the flight attendants. He also threatened to have the authorities involved. At the end of this 6 hour period of not having moved more than a mile they took us back to the airport and said that we were being put on another flight since the flight crew were outside their time without a rest period.
We stayed on this other flight for about 2 hours. Again we did not move more than a mile due to what was reported to us as a logjam at the deicing station. After this time we were taken off of the plane and told that we would be put up for the night and catch a flight to Detroit the next day.
We probably got to the Tulip Inn in Amsterdam about 1230 a.m. Most of the people had not eaten since breakfast other than peanuts and sodas. The restaurant had closed at the hotel.
The next day we were told to be outside to meet a bus at 10:00 a.m. Of course, the bus was late. But, we got to the airport in plenty of time for the departure time of 1:00 p.m. Of course the plane was delayed and we did not depart Amsterdam until approx 3:00 p.m.
Got to Detroit with no problems and was actually able to get a flight to my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina the same night.
Arrived in Charleston after a 36-hour odyssey. Of course, my baggage was no where to be found. It took 5 more days for my bag to catch up with me!
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