Minnesota Fun Fact
The movie Airport, which is widely credited as having kicked off the disaster movie trend of the 1970s, was filmed at the Minneapolis - Saint Paul International Airport
Departure Airport: Miami International Airport (MIA/KMIA)
Intended Arrival: Maurice Bishop International Airport (GND/TGPY)
Actual Arrival (Diversion): Hewanorra International Airport (UVF/TLPL)
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Airline: American Airlines
Flight Time: 3:05
Server: Expert
My flight from Minneapolis landed in Miami twenty-eight minutes early at 9:39 AM, leaving me with almost 2 hours before my next ride to Saint Lucia. I chose to spend this time in the Flagship Lounge in the D concourse. The food selection was great, but parts of it felt more like a hospital waiting room as opposed to an airport lounge. It was a good enough place to pass the time, and soon enough I was at my gate where my 737-800 was just pulling in from Washington, D.C. Boarding began right on time, and the 75% full flight was loaded up within a half an hour. We sat for an unusually long time with the door open. Finally, the captain came up with regrettable news. Maintenance had discovered a defect on one of the cockpit windshields that would require the aircraft to be pulled from service. We all were asked to deplane and head over to the opposite side of the concourse, where we were informed that it would be about an hour wait until we had a replacement aircraft. Right around 12:30, an Airbus A320 was towed in from the hangar. It was another half an hour to wait for our crew to show up (as the original flight crew couldn’t operate our new aircraft), but finally, we were underway.
We had a quick taxi over to Runway 27 and took off, banking right then all the way around towards the south. This gave us an incredible view of Miami and both the main international airport and Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport
We leveled off at 33,000 over the gorgeous blue waters of the Bahamas. The crew had luckily been able to transfer the catering to our new aircraft, so I got the first class meal I ordered. It was a very tasty penne with red sauce, served with a buttery roll, side salad, and grapes. 9/10 meal, especially given the fact that it sat around for a few more hours than intended due to the delay
Off the Northern coast of the Dominican Republic, I took a gander around my seat. It was pretty comfortable, with a decent recline (I didn’t recline for long out of respect for the sleeping guy behind me). The leather was a little scuffed in places, but it seemed overall well maintained. The biggest negative thing I have to say about American’s first class product is the lack of an IFE screen. They’ve really fallen behind their peers in this right, but at least the WiFi was good (though pretty pricey).
We followed the Leeward Islands all the way down, which is spectacular. This is Antigua and Barbuda, another bucket list Caribbean destination.
Nearby Martinique, the captain made a rather concerning announcement. "We’re getting a couple of indications regarding the oil pressure in our #2 engine that we’re not too happy about. It’s nothing catastrophic, and we are still completely safe, but we’ve consulted with our ground ops team and we’re going to be landing a bit sooner than planned. We’re going to do a little bit of circling here off the coast of Martinique to loose some altitude and then we’ll land in St Lucia. We should be on the ground in about 20 minutes, give or take. Do plan on disembarking in Vieux Fort, since we’ll be waiting a while for a replacement aircraft which is coming in from Charlotte. We really do apologize for this, especially after the delay you had in Miami, but safety is the #1 priority American."
People in the cabin were pretty unhappy with this development. There was quite a bit of grumbling and the flight attendants had to deal with some nasty jokes about American as they came through to secure the cabin.
Even though it’s not the approach to the Caribbean airport we wanted, it’s still very pretty. We slammed onto the runway and braked hard. I learned from the captain after that they were doing everything possible to avoid a go-around, since they thought that could potentially worsen the engine issue by running it at a higher power setting.
We stayed at the gate for a few moments, then were escorted onto the ramp and onto busses. The replacement aircraft was still about four hours out, and the crew that was coming in would have timed out so couldn’t fly us to Grenada tonight. So, we had a free 12 hour vacation in Saint Lucia. Not ideal, but it could always be worse.
