Another flight on Delta and another comedy of errors. I left Starkville with no problems. It does irk me a little that when I travel I always take the same stuff and pack the same way. Most times I sail through security, other times they want to search everything. I can’t imagine why the difference. Heck, even some of the TSA agents know me now and talk to me. I got to Atlanta with no problems, had time to stop at Starbucks, and then got on the plane. We even left on time. Of course I immediately noticed that we quit climbing and started banking which meant only one thing—we were returning to Atlanta. The problem was the throttle on one engine was sticking and pilots wanted it checked.
Once we got to back to the gate maintenance took a look and the pilot announced that sometimes the baggage handlers packed the bags too tightly which forces the ceiling of the cargo hold up a little and can bind the throttle cable. After a little while everyone was pretty much convinced that was the problem but not enough to fly the plane. So, we deplane and go to another gate. They announce a departure time of 5:30 and we board the plane accordingly. We are all ready to go but there are no pilots. Not only that, there is no air conditioning. We were getting hot and the flight attendants were trying to get maintenance to turn on the air conditioning. Finally one pilot shows up, then another. But we don’t move. The new problem is that the caterer took the drinks off the old flight and moved them to the wrong gate. We were grounded because of soft drinks.
While we are waiting for the drinks to arrive, the Delta messenger service starts sending me email messages every five minutes telling me we are leaving in five minutes. Finally, we leave and trust me, by the time I was served a soft drink on this flight, we could have landed in Norfolk had we not waited for the drinks. The crew and the flight attendants were as nice and helpful as they could be but there are some serious management issues with Delta. I also continue to be bothered by the number of mechanical problems that are discovered in flight.
But, the good news is I am in Norfolk with friends and an exciting week of work ahead.
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