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The light and water show at the Paseo
Herencia mall.
Afterwards, time for ice cream of course!
Well as I hinted at the beginning, we
had an
incident on
the flight back home.
Initially, we were scheduled to spend
a 12 hour
layover in
San Juan, Puerto Rico. However, on the morning of January 6,
2008, we
changed the plan and boarded American Airlines Flight 1036 to
Miami. It
would connect to Baltimore and get us home much earlier.
About
one hour
into the flight, we suddenly felt a change in pressure, and some
passengers
sitting near the wing reported a bang or thump. We
immediately
went into
a steep dive with the engines throttled back, and the spoilers
deployed.
Then, the captain came on, and one could tell he was breathing behind a
mask.
He instructed us to put on the oxygen masks. However, they
did
not drop
from the overhead compartments, and we did not know what to
do.
After a
few seconds, passengers started to rip the panels open, and we started
to pull
the masks down.
All this time, we were diving down
rapidly. The
reason was that the captain had detected the loss of cabin pressure,
and per
normal procedure, he was diving down below 10,000 feet. Once
there, we no
longer needed oxygen. This took a minute or two, and
meanwhile
everyone
remained mainly calm. There were some folks that were clearly
stressed,
but we managed to keep it together. Once we reached a very
low
altitude,
the plane levelled off, and the captain said we no longer needed our
masks. We flew back to Aruba at this low altitude, and one
notable thing
was how close the ocean looked. We could see the waves on it
as
we flew
back.
Once there, we landed in Aruba
normally, and
were met by
fire trucks that looked the plane over. They saw nothing on
the
exterior
and we taxied to a segregated spot and we were transferred to
busses.
Later, that day, after a long delay, we departed for Boston on a
different
plane, along with Lydia and her family. We spent the night in
Boston and
returned home the next day. What a harrowing experience that
was!
Here
is a write-up regarding this incident in the local
And
a follow-up
the next day.
Stephanie and Christopher with their masks on. They stayed
quite
calm
during the event, but we all
admitted afterwards that it was a big scare.
View forward of our seats. Note the deployed masks.
Many
hatches
were damaged due to us having to rip
them open.
The view aft of our seats. This was after we were cruising at
5,000
feet. We no longer needed the masks then.
What followed was a loooong 4 hour wait in line to get
rescheduled. It
was very tedious. Good thing Ah Mah came with
some food for us.
The serial number on the plane that we were riding was
"N654A".
We shot this view when we left Aruba later that day for a flight bound
for
Boston.
My sister
A few days later, our
picture appeared on the front page of
the local paper.
The airline (American Airlines) put us up for a night at the very nice Hyatt Boston.
It has a
gorgeous
view of the city from across the Boston Harbour.
The next day, we waited for a little while at Boston Logan before our
final leg
home. It was a good way to relax from a stressful end.
We made it home just fine, and were glad to be home.
(c) Edward
Cheung, all rights reserved.