Tel Aviv Bound... the next 28 hours
The fight from San Francisco to Atlanta was uneventful… landed and made my way over to concourse E. The flight to Tel Aviv boarded on time – had to go through a second screening (luggage through scanner for security).
The flight was pretty full… I could hear English, Hebrew and Russian around me… the flight was an hour taking off… one of the intercom phones in the back of the plane wasn’t working on the Boeing 777… it’s a must fix per FAA rules.
We finally took off… doze off… wake-up… doze-off… life in coach. My TV controller was stuck in the armrest but the buttons worked… next to me were a young couple form Little Rock, Arkansas going on vacation… husband and wife were trying to make out Hebrew letters on the landing cards we got...
About 4 ours into the 11 hour flight… an announcement comes on… “we have a medical emergency on board, we have to divert to St. John’s island in Canada --- the eastern most of the Canadian islands on the Atlantic… oh great! In the galley about 3-4 rows in front of me I could see a pair of feet – someone was lying on the ground with a couple of guys and a flight attendant hovering over him—the man on the ground seemed to be sitting… He was an older gentleman… apparently was without pulse for a while… there were two doctors on board tending to him… If you’re going to have a medical emergency, might as well have it on a flight to Israel (Jewish doctors on board and lawyers too, if need be ).
The flight was over the Atlantic and had to turn around to drop the patient off. The plane dumped fuel then we landed in St. John’s as the sun rose over the island at around 7AM EST. We appeared to be the only plane in the airport as we taxied. A work crew paving part of the runway were all lined-up starring at our plane. Apparently, not too many 777’s land at St. John we later found out as the 50 minute planned refueling stop turned to 2 hours since the airport didn’t have the necessary stuff to refuel a 777 with and the fuel truck had to make multiple trips for the 85,000 pound fuel required… spoke to one of the flight attendants… she said this was the first international “drop off” she had been in… she mentioned that the cost (fuel and delay) was likely borne by the airline in case of emergencies like this…
We finally took off and continued our way to Tel Aviv…. More dozing on and off… watched Forrest Gump… the in flight entertainment wasn’t nearly as rich as the SF to Atlanta flight (with the live Dish Network in flight movies and music)… the last hour were brutal! Coach seat – luckily isle… tired… sleepy… cant read because my eyes are burning… I’m tired of the music on the iPod… patience… patience… AND THEN WE LANDED! Applauds and relief. It had been over 24 hours since I left the house but all is well that ends well. With planes there is always the worse case scenario – the ultimate disaster… a 5 hour delay was ok by comparison to that.
It took me an hour to clear passport control – my U.S. passport says “IRAQ” as my country of birth after 28 years of a one-way trip out of Iraq to California I still got some special attention… questioned about 3 times by different people about who/why/where/when of my visit. Everyone was cordial… they were doing what they have to do (these are tough times in a tough neighborhood)… I finally walked through passport control to be questioned again by (what I think) was customs. My luggage was there (phew! Not lost)… it was X-rayed and I was on my way. I had the whole of Ben Gurion International Airport. I got into a taxi just past midnight wising towards the Center of Tel Aviv to the Crown Plaza.
Got it—checked in… got online… Wi-Fi… was able to leach on a free network… sent a few emails and crashed at about 2AM.
Woke-up at around 7AM… internet was down --- spotty (comes goes… Skype logs in and out .. cant browse… cant email…) Called tech support but I guess Saturday is the weekend so no answer. I left a message…
Had breakfast at 9am in a ruckus breakfast room overlooking the Med (Mediterranean) lovely scene… room full of families.. kids… moms and dads. Nothing like fresh bread… some matzo… cucumbers… tomatoes… olives and yogurt… um um!
Came down to the lobby waiting for Benny… a security guard at the door checking backpacks… a couple of Asian looking guys walk in without checking (probably a bad idea)…. The weather is great! Waiting for the day to start… Wi-Fi still iffy… its 10AM.
