I flew from Lansing, Michigan to Detroit at 5 p.m. in the middle of the snowstorm that was on its way towards us. Our plane sat on the runway an hour while they checked computer diagnostics and de-iced, and took off into the wide wild white at 6:15pm.
“Lansing,” as folks who lived there say, “is not the kind of place you run towards. Most folks run away from it.”
I sat, gratefully, at Detroit Metro from 7:30pm to 9:28pm when, with swirling white gusting into drifts outside the giant glass windows, the Northwest plane pulled up into our gate. An hour later we were aboard and an hour after that we were still waiting to leave the gate.
A man wearing a vest with a large orange X on it raised his hand at the front of the plane to get our attention and talked into the microphone. “We’ve got a computer problem on the wings that really isn’t that big a deal but needs to be checked out and cleared before we can take off. We’re sorry about the delay. Actually it’s a problem this plane has had before and we’ve flown without it being on. Only, in this weather, there are regulations that prohibit it. If we can’t get it going we’ll transfer to another plane, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem so … we’ll let you know when we’re through.”
I looked out my snow-covered porthole. The hold door was opening as the man in the vest hung up the mike. Two men wrapped from head to toe in gore-tex stepped out of a luggage trailer that had pulled up while he’d been talking. At 11:30pm we got off the plane and walked to another gate in a deserted aiport.
“We’re sorry folks but all the food vendors are closed down for the night,” the attendant said as we left the plane.
By midnight we were aboard a new plane and settled in. At 12:30 am we were next on line to take off and I still could barely see out to the end of the wing I was sitting next to. A voice came on over the loudspeaker.
“We’re next to take off folks, but we need to de-ice the wings before we do. It should only be ten or fifteen minutes before we get the go-ahead.”
Large trucks appeared like ghosts out of the darkness, orange lights speckled by horizontally flying gusts of confetti. I turned away, not quite believing what I was seeing and rubbed my eyes. When I looked back all I saw was the disappearing outline of what must have been a crane.
We flew through and ahead of the storm. I came into LaGuardia at 2:30am and got home just as the snow started to fall from the sky.
advertisement
Want to help someone out and donate an old car that you no longer use or that you have replaced? Consider donating your old vehicle for charity and receive tax benefits as well! Check us out and see how you can get a tax reduction for your car donation or boat donation. Want to give more?; Donate your RV here as well today!
