Flight 316/1316

Our plane was schedule to leave at 7:05 pm Saturday evening. When our friends dropped us off at the airport and we nearly got blown over by the wind just getting out the car we knew we had some problems. So we started to keep check of the plane coming from Moscow that we would be taking back to Moscow. We later found out that is was schedule to land and nearly did land at JFK. But while on its approach, it pulled up because the turbulence from the wind was too bad. It was then rerouted to Washington DC where it would remain until Sunday night. The passengers were apparently bused from DC to NY City.

We waited and waited hoping the plane would take off from DC and land at JFK some time in the night and we would thne be able to take off a few hours later. We were obviously not so lucky. So finally at about 1:30 am, long after every other flight had been canceled, our flight was canceled too. We were told it would depart at 4:30 on Sunday afternoon. We made our way out to the taxis to catch a ride to the first hotel I called that had a vacancy.

The hotel was nasty but did have a bed. So after arriving a little after 2:00 am, we went to bed. We awake just to have enough time to shower and check out. Then catch a ride back to the airport so we are there in case something happens without us knowing. This seemed to be the norm the previous night. When things were announced they would announce them in Russian but never translate them to English. I understand it is a Russian flight but they are in the USA. Some of those people waiting, us included, spoke only English.

Some point in the mid afternoon, we learn that our plane will be taking off after the Sunday scheduled plane from JFK which means after 8 pm. Our plane ended up taxiing to the runway about 11:45. We had a 30 minute wait to get to the actual runway. Take off was a but turbulent as we climbed over the storm. After getting to our traveling level of 37,000 feet, the turbulence ended.

As usual, i slept a little on the plane but not much. I would have preferred a good 5 or 6 hours but got only 2-ish. we finally landed at about 4:30 Monday afternoon. About 28 hours after our scheduled arrival time of 12:20 pm Sunday afternoon.

We cannot blame aeroflot though for this issue. Mother nature just was not cooperating. The winds were crazy at JFK and the air traffic controllers just would not let anything land. With the turbulence as it was taking off, I could not even imagine what it would have been like on Sunday night.

We felt bad for our driver, Victor, because he did not know whether we were on the early flight or the late flight so he waited at the airport for a few hours for us. We are not supposed to, bu I plan to tip him well on our last trip with him which will be to the airport on Saturday for our trip home.