When we last heard from our hero and stroller schleper, Costello, his flight destined for London, England was diverted to Manchester because of “snow”… snow that wasn’t actually falling from the sky… or sticking to the ground… it was simply the idea of “snow”. And to Londoner’s, it was a very scary idea indeed.
As for me… I walked to work… never once encountering a snow flurry or a patch of ice.
Over the next few hours Costello and I stayed in pretty close contact… all the while… Costello and his merry band of plane-mates continued to sit in their seats on the Manchester tarmac.
It was really quite something, at least from my perspective. When they landed in Manchester, it was with the intention to wait-out the ‘snow storm’ and fly back to London the first chance they had… at least that is what the flight crew was feeding their passengers.
About every 20 minutes or so I would received a text message from Costello saying, “We’ve been cleared for takeoff!” And then about five minutes later I would receive another one saying, “Never mind.”
This when on for three hours.
Until finally, they told the passengers they would not be flying back to London after all. Instead US Airways had chartered buses to pick them up and take them back to Heathrow Airport so they could clear passport control and customs.
That’s right… I didn’t stutter. I really said “passport control” and “clear customs”… in London… a 3 and a half hour drive from Manchester.
Apparently, the United Kingdom has a pretty strict rule about entering the country at your ticketed port of entry. Since the final destination on Costello’s ticket said “London” he needed to go there to ‘enter the country’.
However, no matter how much a rule like this made sense when pressing ink to page… I don’t think anyone anticipated the logistic of busing a plane load of people through the English countryside in a controlled environment.
Evidently, those logistics were discussed for another hour until finally, the US Airways flight crew announced that passengers would be allowed to disembark and pass though passport control in Manchester… however… their checked luggage would still be bused separately to London.
So… finally… at around 11:30am… Costello entered the United Kingdom… stroller in hand.
And to cash in on Costello’s misery, I started a Facebook Fan page called “Costello’s Never Ending Trip to London”… and if you ask Costello… he’ll say is still on his way there now. “It’s just another detour JP… just another detour.”
Costello’s Travel Time: 14 Hours and 25 Minutes
1 comments:
I just love the real world implementation of what seem originally like reasonable rules and regulations.
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