"Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, we are out of fuel"
I had boarded the LA flight to Sydney on Quantas, to work with the Aussie team. I would be landing and head straight to work. Approximately 3 hours out, the following announcement was made in perfect chipper British English, "Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, we are out of fuel".
Not exactly your typical overhead announcement. Long pause. Silence in the cabin. Ok, what do we do? Panic? Pray? Then a logical stream of consciousness... Where are we...we flew over Tahiti hours ago... New Zealand is too far south, what landmasses are between here and Australia that can accommodate an Airbus?
The announcement continued "The entire eastern seaboard of Australia is fogged in, and we will be landing temporarily in Noumea, feeding you breakfast and refueling. The delay shouldn't be more than 30 minutes."
"Noumea? Where is Noumea?" Was my first thought. We landed uneventfully surrounded by lush, green foliage, and breakfast started to arrive. From the window, I could see other large planes were waiting on the tarmac for the same reason.
Another announcement - "Ladies and gentlemen, it is with regret that inform you that during landing, a piece of the tire damaged the underside of the airplane. There are no mechanics on the island, they will have to be flown from Sydney. Two hundred families are on this plane, and we have two agents on the island. The moment the crew steps off the plane, we are grounded for 12 hours, so Welcome to Noumea."
Fortunately I had packed one set of summer type clothes, for it was November, springtime in Australia.
We immigrated into French Polynesia, started making friends of our fellow passengers, and I texted my corporate office from a fellow passengers cell to let them know where I was, since my cell wasn't working.
We boarded a bus, and within minutes, gorgeous beaches could be found zipping by the window. We turned the corner and a American budget hotel was on my left, directly across from the beach. That will work, I thought! But we kept going. Little did I know that they had arranged a 5 star hotel, beach barbecue and a beautiful seafood dinner that night. I would also make lifelong friends, during our short detour.
The views from my beachfront room were of kite surfers zipping across the coastline. Colorful parrots squawked noisily among the trees during a leisurely walk along the beach to town.
My Internet correspondence to my corporate office complete with beachfront photos was titled, "Marooned in Paradise". One of the VP's asked if I had planned to land in Noumea, and I quickly told him that if I was capable of convincing a pilot to land a jumbo jet on a tropical island, I would no longer be working for him!
So paradise was a great way to get of jet lag. I highly recommend it. And Quantas, Thank You for making a unavoidable situation into one of my favorite travel stories.
I had boarded the LA flight to Sydney on Quantas, to work with the Aussie team. I would be landing and head straight to work. Approximately 3 hours out, the following announcement was made in perfect chipper British English, "Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, we are out of fuel".
Not exactly your typical overhead announcement. Long pause. Silence in the cabin. Ok, what do we do? Panic? Pray? Then a logical stream of consciousness... Where are we...we flew over Tahiti hours ago... New Zealand is too far south, what landmasses are between here and Australia that can accommodate an Airbus?
The announcement continued "The entire eastern seaboard of Australia is fogged in, and we will be landing temporarily in Noumea, feeding you breakfast and refueling. The delay shouldn't be more than 30 minutes."
"Noumea? Where is Noumea?" Was my first thought. We landed uneventfully surrounded by lush, green foliage, and breakfast started to arrive. From the window, I could see other large planes were waiting on the tarmac for the same reason.
Another announcement - "Ladies and gentlemen, it is with regret that inform you that during landing, a piece of the tire damaged the underside of the airplane. There are no mechanics on the island, they will have to be flown from Sydney. Two hundred families are on this plane, and we have two agents on the island. The moment the crew steps off the plane, we are grounded for 12 hours, so Welcome to Noumea."
Fortunately I had packed one set of summer type clothes, for it was November, springtime in Australia.
We immigrated into French Polynesia, started making friends of our fellow passengers, and I texted my corporate office from a fellow passengers cell to let them know where I was, since my cell wasn't working.
We boarded a bus, and within minutes, gorgeous beaches could be found zipping by the window. We turned the corner and a American budget hotel was on my left, directly across from the beach. That will work, I thought! But we kept going. Little did I know that they had arranged a 5 star hotel, beach barbecue and a beautiful seafood dinner that night. I would also make lifelong friends, during our short detour.
The views from my beachfront room were of kite surfers zipping across the coastline. Colorful parrots squawked noisily among the trees during a leisurely walk along the beach to town.
My Internet correspondence to my corporate office complete with beachfront photos was titled, "Marooned in Paradise". One of the VP's asked if I had planned to land in Noumea, and I quickly told him that if I was capable of convincing a pilot to land a jumbo jet on a tropical island, I would no longer be working for him!
So paradise was a great way to get of jet lag. I highly recommend it. And Quantas, Thank You for making a unavoidable situation into one of my favorite travel stories.
All I can say is WOW.
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