From Bussels to Raleigh - well not quite!

After having got there and done what I needed to do (getting the Visa part 1 and part 2) in Brussels, there remained the small matter of getting to Raleigh.

I called up the IBM travel agent (Amex Travel services) and got myself booked on the next flight out which left at 10 am the following morning; Friday 15th August. There weren't any direct flights to Raleigh, so this one went via NY. I had a 3 hour wait at JFK but that was fine!

Friday
I got up nice and early & was in the taxi at 7:30am - at the airport before 8. Lovely. Got to the check-in for my flight only to find that because the inbound flight from NY had been delayed leaving JFK the night before, OUR flight was going to be delayed 3 hours :-( of course this meant I was going to miss my connecting flight, but they were able to rebook me on to the later flight out of JFK to Raleigh. Unfortunately this was 6 hours later....but at least I was booked on something.

The flight to NY was very pleasant & uneventful - I had 2 seats to myself and landed feeling quite chilled.

I phoned Dan once I got thru customs. He was out on the pop in Batley - at a nice curry house there. I have to admit I was a bit jealous and homesick at that point! I then phoned Mum and Dad to let them know I had finally arrived. As I was chatting to them, I was in a seating area with a big TV. It was showing CNN. My eyes swept over the screen. 'Breaking News' it said. I was intreagued - was there something going on I needed to know about, something I'd missed by being an enforced captive of the airport & airline???? I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the line underneath.....

• Tornado in Manhattan

Surely not? Manhattan? You mean, where I'm sitting RIGHT NOW?...I thought - it can't be. I've had all the bad travel luck getting to Brussels - I'm definitely owed some good luck now. By this time it was 5pm NY time. My flight out wasn't until 9:20pm - so I was hoping the thing would come and go before it was time for me to depart.

OH NO! It wasn't to be. We sat and watched the storm approach. A thick black cloud descended on the airport. I was sitting in an area where you could charge your phone & laptop and was listening in to the walkie-talkie of the guy sitting next to me. He was airport security. About 7pm the 1st warning came through.....

All personnel evacuate the ramp - risk of lightening strike

I wondered what that meant. I realised that quite a few of the people waiting for flights were up and looking out of the windows down to the gates. All the people who wander about on the tarmac - the baggage handlers, the guys with the table tennis bats who direct the planes on and off the stands - the guys who drive the little tow trucks which push the planes back off the gate - the people who man the aeroplane access tunnels - all of them - just literally abandoned their posts and ran inside.

This left a quite amusing sight out there in the pouring rain & hail - planes literally mid-taxi were just left at all angles at the gates. They looked like the pilots had just left them there in a hurry! We could see people on the planes looking back at the terminal - obviously wondering why they'd stopped mid-reverse. It was very funny!

This situation lasted for about 30 minutes - from what I could gather by listening in to the walkie talkie and overhearing the gate staff chatting away - the airport ramp (runway and tarmac areas) closes when there has been lightening within 5 miles of the airport - I guess something to do with the expanse of wide open space. All the people are removed from risk - and the planes just have to sit there until it opens again.

The ramp closed again at 8:30-9pm. By this time our flight was showing an hour's delay. By 10pm they were announcing that our plane was there, ready to depart, but the crew, who had been on an inbound flight from Denver, had been diverted during one of the 2 periods of closure. Oh poo. The flight was cancelled. My 4th cancellation in 5 days. Could it get any worse?

Read about my unexpected night in New York