Delayed

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(Why I was on a plane for almost 2 ½ hours from Wellington to Christchurch)

After a few days in Wellington, it was time to return to Christchurch. We boarded the plane around 1 o’clock for the 1.15 take off. The doors shut and expecting to taxi out when the Captain made his usual speech, during which he said, “the first officer has noticed a screw loose in the engine.” “It is quite an important one,” he said, “so we had better get it fixed.” He told us it might take about quarter of an hour. About twenty minutes later he announced it was all fixed and we would be on our way. Then another announcement that it was still not right and the engineers would have to return.

By now they were giving all passengers a glass of water, which wasn’t a good idea, as we couldn’t use the loo. The Captain also announced that if they didn't fix the screw, we might all have to get off and on to another plane.

There were several passengers on board who were to connect in Christchurch with a flight to Invercargill. They were informed that they would miss their connecting flight, so if they got off now, and take their bags, they could get a direct flight to Invercargill. Their main luggage of course was in the hold and would arrive at a different time. So about a dozen people left us. The Captain gave his permission that anyone could use the cell phones make calls to those who were meeting them. The man sitting next to me had just found his son who was further back on the plane but he didn't know he was on the same flight. He also had a yarn to the hostess inquiring if he could get on another flight, as he had to be in Christchurch at three o'clock. The hostess went to find out. She returned a few minutes later running up the isle to inform him that we were now ready to go. Just then, all the Invercargill ones returned back again with their bags. They were told that when they got their, they would have to report for new boarding passes as they would be on a later flight. The Captain's voice came on again announcing that they just had the paperwork to do to say the job had been done. That took another ten minutes. At two o'clock, our 1.15 flight started to back out. We arrived home without any further problem. Except for one thing. It was 10 past three and our poor corporate driver had been waiting patiently since twenty to two. It was past her knock off time as she had been working since 4am.

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