An airport that closes its only runway at midnight....a freak line of thunder snowshowers....a passenger stuck in the bathroom....all things that conspire to make for an interesting evening when the stars and planets align, or in our case, when the moon, jupiter, and venus are all in unusually close proximity in the evening sky.
My base airport closes its only runway at midnight each night for maintenance. I was assigned to do an "out-and-back", which brings you back to your home airport at the end of the day. There were numerous storms moving through the northeast, bringing high winds, rain, snow, and other nasty precipitation. We were due back into our airport at 11:57 PM local time, which is really pushing that midnight curfew. Upon arrival at the airport, the board unceremoniously announced that our departure time is 1:30 behind schedule, so we were already in trouble. We had 2:30 worth of layovers, so we were confident we could make up the time, and our departure time was moved up by 30 minutes, which bolstered our confidence. We launched for the City of Brotherly Love about 45 minutes behind schedule.
Due to the high winds Philly was using the two longer runways and landing to the west. While being guided for our turn at a landing, someone reported windshear on final, and apparently this renders one of the two runways unusable. We immediately were given instructions to tour the countryside, and things were not looking good for making curfew. After only a few turns, the airport opens up one of the other two runways, and we were brought right around for a nice landing by the captain on the short runway 26.
After unloading the passengers and conducting the preflight, I decided to check my phone for messages, which I usually don't do during a quick turn, which this now was due to our unanticipated tardiness. The Mothership (scheduling) called while we were in the air. I called them back, and they informed me that two of our final three legs would be cancelled, and we were to ferry an empty airplane from Buffalo back to home base. This was good news, because it meant we would make curfew, and I wouldn't be driving home at 1am. We immediately loaded up our passengers, and launched for the frozen north.
Along the way, we were treated to the unusual celestial show pictured above, which we soon learned meant that a passenger was going to get locked in the bathroom. With the flight attendant on the phone with the captain, together they managed to work out the method by which you can insert a pen into the slot that shows "Occupied/Unoccupied" and slide open the latch. This was a first for all of us, although I later learned they discuss scenarios like this during flight attendant training. I also learned two other methods by which you can get the lavatory door open if you absolutely need to. Who knew? I was distracted by this excitement, and failed to process the flashes of lightning off in the distance.
After landing at BUF, we simply needed to take on fuel and launch, as we weren't bringing any passengers with us. While we waited for the fueler to finish up, there was a bright flash - which was a lightning strike at the airport - and the sky opened up with large fluffy white flakes being driven by the winds. In airline life this indicates a trip to see the Iceman. We taxied the airplane to the deice pad, but the snow was falling so rapidly that the Iceman couldn't keep up with it. After two complete trips around the aircraft, the snow subsided enough for him to make a third and successful trip around leaving us with a clean and shiny plane. As long as it is clean and shiny, we can go flying. We lined up with the runway, did the Star Wars launch into the advancing snow flakes, and 1 hour and 30 minutes later, our night was over.
If this is what happens when the planets align, I shudder at the thought of what happens when pigs fly....
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