December 30 2010
Alright boarding the plane to leave for St. Kitts at 10:45am ended up being the EASY part! I had the window seat with no one next to me and the woman that I saw at first talk with the Fighter Pilot Mike was in the third seat. All the room in the world and a good neighbor I fell asleep like a baby and woke up to a woman giving me a customs sheet to fill out. The plane was on time it was 2:30pm, 30mins from St. Kitts, my home away from home, and we began circling when an announcement came over the intercom, “UH, okay passengers our plane is low on fuel so we need to make a stopover in St. Maarten and fuel up before heading back to St. Kitts. Thank you.” Okay we were all confused about why the pilot wouldn’t have enough fuel to land but didn’t think anything of it. After spending an hour and half in the plane at the St. Maarten airport we were in the air and about 30mins from St. Kitts. My neighbor, Laura, and I were thirsty but didn’t worry because we would be landing soon…right…?
We begin our descent to the runway when all of a sudden the pilot pulls the plane gently back into the atmosphere! It was subtle but my neighbor and I looked at each other in wonder. We were in the air again and an announcement came over the intercom, “Alright the weather on the island is poor and the runway is too wet to land so we are heading back to St. Maarten, to see if we can wait out the storm and let the runway dry. We will let those of you that want to walk around and we will let the owners of the dogs in cargo water and feed their animals.” At this point all the students traveling to Ross Medical School in Nevis were wondering if they were going to be able to make their ferry, kids were cranky, and vacationers were disgruntled. Laura was visiting her boyfriend and his family for the New Year holiday in Nevis and had been traveling all day like me. We were all trying to get a hold of family but not many of us could get service once we landed.
The pilot let us deplane but warned us to stay close to the plane in case we needed to depart quickly. The entire plane got up and walked off the plane up the long ramp to a small room with glass walls, then filtered down stairs to another small room where an employee was holding automatic doors open for us to go through. Like a herd we all wondered into a cooler empty room adjacent to a security check point. After a few minutes a roomer spread and soon enough we realized that we had gone “too far” according to the pilots standard and to get back to the plane we had to go up to the departures area and wait at a gate to board the plane again. Some people didn’t bring their passports and things and we were all hungry and thirsty because the flight attendants stopped serving us water and food. Out of desperation one by one we all filed through the checkpoint. The three attendants were taking their time without expression and they only had five bins to rotate through the crowd so the process was a tedious one for all of us! Once up in the departures area there were only two stores open at all and they happened to have a few snacks and water but they were closing fast! It was 5pm by the time the last people got to the food counter and the pickings were slim. I grabbed a ham sandwich and bottle of water for 16$, but it was worth it. Then I managed to call home and let them know I was alive just having plane problems!
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