The plane ride from hell-Part II

Just when you think you've been through the worst traveling experience ever, the travel Gods, who hate me, decide to have a little fun.

I left Halifax yesterday at 8am to leave for Toronto at 11am. All went fine, although we left about 20 minutes late, which is no big deal. We land in Toronto pretty much on time but the tell us the airport is on a "red alert" because of an incoming thunder storm. What that basically means is because of the incoming thunder storm, no ground crews are allowed onto the runway because, in the past, crew members have been hit by lightning and killed. So there we sat, not 10 meters from the jetway but unable to enter the airport. The pilot said it should only be about 20 minutes till they lift the red alert. When after 2 hours, the flight crew decided to start playing Madagascar (the movie, which was quite entertaining actually) I wasn't very optimistic. After about 4.5 hours of sitting on the plane, the alert was lifted and we moved the 10 meters forward to the jet way. I ran to my gate for it was now way past boarding time and I in fact got there 5 minutes after the plane was scheduled to takeoff. Because of the alert, my plane was delayed, which was lucky I guess. A hell of a lot luckier than the Air France flight that apparently crashed not long after we landed. When we were sitting on the runway, the person next to me pointed out a plane on fire which at the time I assumed was not a big deal as we could only see smoke. Afterwards when I heard what happened I assumed that this was the plane in question (although I had heard it had been struck by lightning). After seeing pictures on the net though, I don't think that was what we saw. Maybe we saw a different plane and the smoke in t he distance coming up from behind. I don't remember what airline the plane we saw was from. We eventually left about 4 hours delayed. I slept well on the plane. Didn't watch any movies. Just slept almost the whole way. Definitely the way to do things. Because so many planes were diverted away from Toronto because of the storm our plane wasn't full. That gave me an extra seat next to me to spread out into, so I got almost comfortable.

We arrived home in Israel 4 hours later than the original time scheduled, which would be expected after leaving 4 hours late. I wasn't very pleased when I discovered my bags along with all my clothing and things I bought while away, hadn't made it. It seams the same thing happened to many other people on the flight who had connected from another place (before Toronto). I filled out the form, caught a cab and went home.

Ahh, it's good to be home. All in all it wasn't the worst flight in the world. We were one of only 3 flights as far as I know to get out from Toronto from 1330 that afternoon until this morning. (For example, the Rome flight that was supposed to leave from our gate after us was canceled.) I guess you just have to be optimistic. Thank god I'm not stupid enough to fly Air France. I guess the travel Gods don't hate me that much after all.