On a typical international flight, the 416 passengers on a Boeing 747-400 will use 5.5 tons of food service items. But this was not your typical flight:
After a morning trip from Philadelphia to Minneapolis, we boarded the big plane heading for Shanghai. Neither of us are good sleepers on airplanes, so we read and nodded our way across the Pacific ocean en-route to the stopover point in Japan. A little over 12 hours had passed when we began our final approach into Tokyo’s Narita airport. But at the last minute the plane turned around and headed east into a holding pattern. A few minutes later, the pilot made a surprising announcement: there had been a very bad earthquake and Narita airport was just evacuated.
Along with a number of other commercial airliners, we eventually landed at a military airbase in Yokohama. After three hours of waiting, the decision was made to fly over to Tokyo’s Haneda airport for the night. It was a quick trip over to Tokyo, and we were soon on the ground and looking forward to getting off the plane. But, as it turned out, Delta airlines does not have a contract for ground transportation at Haneda, leaving us stranded on the tarmac to spend another night on the plane:
Much to the delight of our fellow 400+ passengers, extra provisions arrived at 3:30AM. People were generally patient throughout the night, and after the sun rose, the exhausted flight crew took off again, making the short hop over to Narita airport which was now open for stranded travelers. This was a record for us: 31 hours on the same plane!
Of course, our flight to Shanghai was delayed significantly too, finally landing in Pudong airport at about 3:00AM. We then had the opportunity to go through immigration, bag claim, customs, and this lengthy taxi line:
A lot of time had passed since we pulled away from our daughter’s house early Thursday morning. We finally made it to our Shanghai hotel at 5:00AM on Sunday morning, anxious to take a shower, shave, and get a few hours sleep:
We caught the tail end of the breakfast buffet and hurried back to the airport, only to see those fateful words on the monitor:
There is good news about a trip that takes 77 hours: it sets a benchmark against which future trips can be compared. But we’re not complaining, especially in view of the tragic situations for so many people that we left behind in Japan.
I will always think about you waiting on the plane when I start complaining about waiting in line at the store, or in line for gas, or at a doctor’s office. They would have had to bring in the guys with the white coats to take me away if I was on a plane for 31 hours. Your patience is to be commented!!!
We’re so happy you made it safely home! We were thinking about you all. We’ve enjoyed the pictures of your new grandson and family. I’m sure you’re looking forward to seeing your students and starting a new semester.
On a positive note, after being on a plane for 30+ hours, you probably figured out how to get comfortable enough to sleep. On your next flight back to the US, you and Susan won’t have any problems getting some shut eye.
Glad you were traveling together!
What an experience! During it, you must have felt like it would never end. Susan, I don’t know how you managed to smile for that picture!
Ugh! Tim told us this had happened, but not all the details. Yuck! Glad you are back on this side safely!
Mark, although we didn’t learn how to get comfortable and sleep on the plane, we rejoiced to get back to our apartment and climb into our hard, Chinese bed. The whole trip was a good preparation for our return to a culture where waiting is a part of the fabric of life.
Did you take someone elses picture of the chin with the stubble as I can’t imagine that was you
I think that your beard automatically grows a bit longer when you cross the date line on a trans-Pacific flight.