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| - Subject: American Airlines review Las Vegas to Charlotte, NC to Puerto Rico. Return thru Miami, FL to Las Vegas, NV - roundtrip for three, July 11 and 17
My wife, my son and I flew from Las Vegas, NV to San Juan, Puerto Rice by way of Charlotte, NC. July 11th, 2015, initially aboard US Airways #889.
Switching planes, we departed Charlotte on US Airways #1834. The plane was taxied toward the runway when the pilot's voice came over the intercom and announced a mechanic had left a door open on the no.1 engine and he would have to shut it down while they fixed it and then restart the engine.
This was not a good sign.
When the plane left the runway on ascent, the usual din of engines roar was shattered by a deafening noise on the port side that sounded like a high whining buzz; like a hammer drill on galvanized steel. A piercing screaming yowl of metal on metal and it continued for what seemed like minutes; yet nobody says anything about it. Within seconds of this ear-splitting noise, a smoke like substance starts coming out of the overhead and pouring from the ceiling vents. The frightened passengers began a low murmur of fear, which grows quickly into cries of panic as the smoke like substance now was pouring out of both sides of the upper cabin - nearly the full length of the plane.
First an engine shut down; then this unbelievably loud, screaming metallic noise - followed by something which looks a whole hell of a lot - like smoke, pouring out of the overhead.
It looked like we were about to burst into flames and die a violent, fiery, horrible death.
The stewardess sensed the excitement and assured everyone it was just condensation mist and not smoke, and when the plane reached altitude the high scream of the engine (or whatever that noise was) suddenly quieted - and with it the cries and whispers of the distressed and panicked passengers quickly subsided - and every one nestled in for the flight to San Juan.
Believe me, every frightened passenger on that flight, said their prayers that afternoon.
Even if in reality it was just an extremely loud, unexpected noise - combined with some freak, never-before-seen, burst of condensation, this little combination of events created a near death experience.
I know I will never forget it.
Departing San Juan at the end of vacation, we arrived a couple hours early to the San Juan airport and were notified by text message our flight had mechanical difficulties and had been delayed; then delayed again, and delayed again. We waited at that airport for an additional five hours before they got us on a plane to Miami and the multiple delays caused us to miss our connecting flight back to Las Vegas.
This is where the true nightmare begins. We now have no flight, no luggage, no schedule, no hotel, we are stranded and the stewardess tells us to go to the service center, there will be someone just outside the gate to assist us. There was no one outside the gate to assist us - and the service center was not called the service center but something else like ticket reassignment center, further adding to the confusion.
The noticeably misnamed, service center had more than 200 people in line. There are six work stations, but only four service reps working the booth.
We were waaay back in the line - and when we reached the counter we were told they could not fly us out until 9:25 the next day. There were so many people in line they were out of vouchers well before we reached the counter. We were invited to lay on the floor of the AA auditorium.
After waiting seven hours in Puerto Rico for our flight to arrive, we then had to wait three hours in line with a couple hundred angry passengers to be assuaged by the service center attendants - who behaved as typical union slackers and took their breaks and ended their work days on schedule, even though there were hundreds of angry people in line. They had six work stations but as the night wore on at times they would have - only one attendant - so four burley police officers were called in to stare at us menacingly - just in case the crowd became unruly. Two more attendants came in later and the crowd quieted down.
They gave new flight assignments plus hotel and dinner vouchers to the first portion of the line, but the vouchers quickly ran out and the rest of us were given a small blanket and toothbrush kit and told to sleep on the auditorium floor or in these little cots. The cots had an aluminum frame which hit a six foot human in the back of the head and across the achilles tendon - making them near to unbearable.
The auditorium room was maxed out with more than a hundred people, so they opened an auxiliary room where we lie restlessly on cold slabs, carpet or cots with another hundred-fifty or so, tired travelers; settling in for a traumatizing night of group snoring, babies crying and general restless misery in a room which was cold enough to keep an ice block solid. This was a harrowing experience for my wife
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