I should have known that this was going to be a "fun" flight home. Things were going too well the entire time. Well, almost the entire time.
It started off as a beautiful day in Orlando. Watched the sun come up over the airport as I enjoyed an early morning cigar. Got on the plane, took off and the flight was smooth as silk. So smooth that I actually fell asleep which is something I am never able to do, especially in the small seat of the commuter jet. Around noon, they came on the overhead saying that we were 100 miles out from Akron-Canton and we should be on the ground in 20 minutes. A few moments later we were starting our series of turns to prepare for landing. Clouds everywhere, and I couldn't get a bearing on where we were. No big deal though, I was almost home and I knew my wife was waiting for me at the airport. A few more minutes, and we started our descent into the clouds. That's when things got weird. After bobbing up and down in the clouds a couple of times, we went down again, but then the pilot jerked the plane hard to the right and straight up. That was followed immediately by a sharp left turn. We were back above the clouds and as I followed the sunlight coming in through windows, I could tell that we were in orbit around the airport. After several more minutes, the flight attendent got on the phone with the flight deck. They were on for a couple of minutes and as she talked to them she kept looking back to us, down to the ground, back at us, and repeated that a couple of times. She got out of her seat, switched the phone over to intercom, and told us the news. "Folks, I'm sorry to inform you, but there is a problem with our de-icer on the wings, and we have to go to Dayton, Ohio for them to look at it." Okay, did she say a problem with the de-icer? With that, I could tell by the sun coming through the left side of the plane that we were heading south west toward Dayton. Great. Denise is at the airport probably wondering where the hell I am at. More importantly, I don't want her to worry. Several minutes later, the pilot came on the intercom to tell us what we already know, but to tell us the reason we are going to Dayton is because there is no cloud cover there. We picked up ice going through the clouds going into Akron-Canton. So about 1:00 we were on the ground at Dayton. I called Denise, and she had no idea what was going on. I let her know that everything was fine, but at this time I was starting to get a little concerned that the landing might have been the type I didn't want. But we were safe in Dayton. Needless to say, I was a little freaked. The mechanics came on board to have a talk with the pilots. I heard some of the talk. I'm not sure if it was that they couldn't land the plane in Akron-Canton, or that if they landed the plane, they couldn't get it back in the sky again. They told us that they were going to deplane us because they couldn't fix the problem at Dayton, and the gate agents were going to tell us what was going on. They were going to take the plane back to Orlando for repair. As we stood inside the gate, the gate agent told us to go down to the baggage claim for more information. We all went down there to hear what they had to tell us.
They were going to get several vans to cart us back up to Akron-Canton, 200 miles away. It was at that point that I called my manager and got approval to rent a car. There was no way I was going to spend a multi-hour drive with a bunch of elder folks that are ticked off and wanting to stop every few minutes. I called Denise to tell her the plan and she informed me that she had a flat tire. So I'm stranded in Dayton, she's stranded in Canton. What a wonderful day this is turning out to be. Okay, so I didn't crash. That is a plus. She was able to get roadside assistance to get her fixed up and on her way and I hit the gas and headed home. Funny thing is, the entire ride home, the sky had magically cleared up. Funny how things work. Finally at 5:25, literally 5 hours after my flight was suppose to have landed, we were all reunited at the airport and on our way home.
I think I'm done with flying for a while. This is a Lotusphere that I will not soon forget.
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