The sunset/sunrise last night was very cool, and very pretty, even though I couldn’t really see it at all. Mostly I just noticed a very nice shade of red. Then the cabin lights came back on around 2:50 Beijing time, 13:50 Chicago time (remember, we’re traveling backwards in time), and they served us breakfast around 15:00 before we landed early at around 15:50.
Once we landed, we sat on the tarmac for 15 minutes while our gate was being cleared. We apparently arrived so early that the proceeding flight was still at the gate. After that we went through customs and rechecked our bags before making our way to another terminal to go back through security and make our way over to the gate. Our flight wasn’t up yet so we went to the gate area where the previous Dayton flight was leaving from. When we got there we found out that flight was delayed. We went to get food, and shortly after I came back they cancelled that flight.
So after that we kept a watch on the departures board. Our flight was “awaiting aircraft”, so they pushed it back first to 21:51 and then 22:15, which put us in Dayton around 0:30. They also changed our gate, but that didn’t effect where we were sitting. Finally at 21:00 we were told that our plane would be arriving from Kansas City at 22:00 and we would try to leave by 22:15, getting into Dayton at 0:35. They changed gates again, and the new one was right next to us, which we were happy about. We were sitting there for long enough that we managed to move completely through the phase where you sit there in the terminal moaning “I don’t want to be at O’Hare anymore”. Apparently when the plane does arrive they are going to do a fifteen-minute rapid reload and send it off to Dayton.
The plane arrived right at 22:00, and we were supposed to be on it and leaving by 22:30. But then the disembarking process took longer than expected, and after that the pilot found a problem with the windshield defroster. So maintenance was called but after 75 minutes they still hadn’t fixed it. We were told that, after 2.5 hours of delay, the flight was cancelled because maintenance didn’t have the necessary part to repair the plane, which is odd, given that it’s O’Hare, one of the biggest airports in North America. One would think there would be enough spare parts around to build at least one whole new plane from the ground up, especially since they have literally thousands of commuter jets that come through every day.
Once we landed, we sat on the tarmac for 15 minutes while our gate was being cleared. We apparently arrived so early that the proceeding flight was still at the gate. After that we went through customs and rechecked our bags before making our way to another terminal to go back through security and make our way over to the gate. Our flight wasn’t up yet so we went to the gate area where the previous Dayton flight was leaving from. When we got there we found out that flight was delayed. We went to get food, and shortly after I came back they cancelled that flight.
So after that we kept a watch on the departures board. Our flight was “awaiting aircraft”, so they pushed it back first to 21:51 and then 22:15, which put us in Dayton around 0:30. They also changed our gate, but that didn’t effect where we were sitting. Finally at 21:00 we were told that our plane would be arriving from Kansas City at 22:00 and we would try to leave by 22:15, getting into Dayton at 0:35. They changed gates again, and the new one was right next to us, which we were happy about. We were sitting there for long enough that we managed to move completely through the phase where you sit there in the terminal moaning “I don’t want to be at O’Hare anymore”. Apparently when the plane does arrive they are going to do a fifteen-minute rapid reload and send it off to Dayton.
The plane arrived right at 22:00, and we were supposed to be on it and leaving by 22:30. But then the disembarking process took longer than expected, and after that the pilot found a problem with the windshield defroster. So maintenance was called but after 75 minutes they still hadn’t fixed it. We were told that, after 2.5 hours of delay, the flight was cancelled because maintenance didn’t have the necessary part to repair the plane, which is odd, given that it’s O’Hare, one of the biggest airports in North America. One would think there would be enough spare parts around to build at least one whole new plane from the ground up, especially since they have literally thousands of commuter jets that come through every day.
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