Travel Page

by bill - 2008-01-09 06:17:01 ( in life, travel, blog) [php version] rebuild

Posted on 23 Feb 2008

A Flight Attendant's report

by a flight attendant

On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination." No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, Newfoundland. He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately-no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request..."

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