In a previous installment, I wrote about our really bad luck flying from Miami (MIA) to Skiathos (JSI). The previous installment was about our first flight, which was delayed, then canceled, and then had a baggage situation. Oh well.
Fortunately our Air France flights to Paris (CDG) and Vienna (VIE) were excellent. We then spent a night at the Moxy Vienna Airport, and the next morning, boarded our Austrian Airlines flight to Skiathos. What was supposed to be a routine 90-minute flight ended up being anything but…
In this post:
Our (great) flight attendant fell in the galley…
After a rather exhausting journey up until that point, we woke up early on Saturday morning, and figured we had it made, and would be in paradise within a couple of hours. Our 707-mile flight was scheduled to depart at 6:10AM and arrive at 9:05AM, so with a one hour time change, it was blocked at 2hr5min, with a flight time of 1hr30min.
We were seated in the first row of the plane, and the purser on this flight was an older gentlemen who was absolutely lovely. He had a great sense of humor, and I don’t think he had a single announcement where he didn’t make a joke (and let me clarify that the jokes “landed,” as he got constant laughs). Before departure, he joked that our flight time to Skiathos would be 3hr20min… and then corrected himself, saying he was just seeing if passengers were paying attention.
The captain was also awesome — Miles saw him when he took a bathroom break, and he said “look papa, it’s the pilot!” The captain heard it, and invited him to visit the cockpit on landing, which Miles was very excited about.
The flight was great, we started our descent, the cabin was prepared for landing, and we were going to be on the ground in Greece within 10 minutes. It was pretty bumpy on the approach, and the purser was just making final cabin preparations.
From one second to the next, the turbulence went from bad to worse. The one flight attendant walking down the aisle quickly sat down in a business class seat and buckled up, and at basically the same time, the purser fell to the ground. We heard him let out a loud grunt, heard a loud thud, and he crashed into the bulkhead, laying on his back. He was literally a foot from my… well, feet.
The other flight attendant audibly shrieked, and everyone in the cabin wanted to help, but it obviously wasn’t safe to get up. To be clear, he didn’t just fall slightly, but he was literally lying on his back in the galley. I was worried he had hit his head on the bulkhead, though he got up within seconds, and acted completely normal. I still worried if maybe he had a concussion and didn’t realize it, but that was the end of that drama.
We then had a go around… and another go around…
With the flight attendants safely strapped into their jump seats, I figured that would be the end of the drama, and we’d be on the ground shortly. One thing worth pointing out is that Skiathos Airport is a bit of an avgeek haven, given the very low approaches you often see, due to the short runway.
We approached runway 1, and as we descended through around 1,500 feet, we performed a go around. That’s obviously still a pretty high altitude, but we ascended quickly, and it was extremely bumpy.
We climbed up, and then entered a holding pattern, at which point the captain was on the PA to let us know what was going on. He explained that the weather in Skiathos wasn’t great, and visibility at the airport was below minimums right as we initiated our final approach, so we’d have to hold and wait for a bit.
At this point we entered a holding pattern for around 30 minutes, before trying another approach. I should point out that we were holding at around 4,000 feet, right in the thick of the clouds, so we were being thrown around quite a bit, and there was virtually no visibility (one passenger seated a few rows back even threw up).
At this point I’m thinking in my head “okay, typically you have 30+ minutes worth of extra fuel plus enough to get to your diversion point, so if we don’t make it this time, we might be diverting.”
This time around we approached in the opposite direction, landing on runway 19 rather than runway 1, because somehow visibility was less of an issue in the other direction. This time around we made it down to 100 feet… only to pull up again at the last minute.
We then diverted to Thessaloniki…
At this point I could tell we were flying in a straight line to another destination. A few minutes later the captain was back on the PA to explain the situation. He said that while the landing was looking better this time around, the tailwinds combined with the wet runway also put that approach below minimums.
He explained we’d be diverting to Thessaloniki (SKG), so that we could refuel, and then we’d regroup, and figure out our plan from there. The flight took around 20 minutes, and the views enroute were beautiful — you’d think there wasn’t any weather issue anywhere nearby!
We touched down in Thessaloniki at 9:56AM local time, 2hr27min after departing Vienna, so I imagine we didn’t have much fuel remaining at that point.
A refueling, and then another long(ish) flight to Skiathos…
On the ground in Skiathos, we had around six tons of fuel loaded onto the aircraft. The captain and purser did an incredible job looking after passengers — the captain provided constant updates while standing in front of the cabin facing passengers, while the purser also made frequent announcements.
In these kinds of situations, it’s all about communication. Obviously nobody thought the crew was at fault here, but people can get cranky in these kinds of situations, and their calm and constant communication made all the difference in keeping the mood onboard positive. Passengers felt grateful rather than frustrated. I also think for uneasy flyers, there’s something really reassuring about a calm pilot who constantly updates passengers on what’s going on.
We ended up being on the ground for around 80 minutes, and at 11:19AM we once again took off for Skiathos. The captain told us the flight time would be just 20 minutes, and that conditions had improved. We started our journey toward Skiathos, but then stopped our descent at 4,000 feet, and once again entered a holding pattern.
We were back in those same thick clouds we were in earlier, and got thrown around quite a bit. We first did one pattern east of the airport, and then held south of the airport. In the end, we spent 50 minutes in the air, before finally approaching runway 1.
To say that everyone onboard was holding their breath for a successful landing this time around would be an understatement. Sure enough, we touched down at 12:07PM, a little over three hours behind schedule, and the cabin erupted in cheers and clapping.
Despite all the drama, the captain kept true to his promise, and invited Miles up to the flight deck upon landing. Miles is a pretty huge avgeek for a three year old (I have no clue why!). 😉 When he walked into the cockpit he said “wow, the power” (referring to the throttles), and the captain even let him move the throttles forward. That was definitely the highlight of this trip for him so far.
I’ve gotta say, I know this whole outbound journey sounds kind of crazy to some people, and I would definitely do things differently in retrospect. That being said, I was initially dreading it because I was worried the kids were going to be screaming, I wondered how Jet would do with his first long haul flight, etc.
To my surprise, that ended up being a complete non-issue. I know parents tend to view their kids through rose colored lenses, but I’m not exaggerating when I say they barely made a peep on any of the flights. So at least that all worked in our favor. The kids felt no stress, and had a great time… heck, Jet slept through most of this flight.
Bottom line
Our Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna to Skiathos ended up being a bit more eventful than we were expecting. First the flight attendant fell on approach due to turbulence, something I’ve never seen before, in my millions of miles of flying.
I was expecting that would be the extent of the drama… until we had two go arounds, and then a diversion. Honestly, our younger son was resting most of the time, our older son found it kind of an amusing, and an avgeek, I’ll gladly take an extra complimentary approach or three. 😉 So I’ll put this more in the camp of being an adventure, rather than anything else.
By the way, it seems this Thessaloniki diversion isn’t even an isolated incident, as the same type of diversion happened just three weeks prior, on the same flight.
@Ben typo - "On the ground in Skiathos" you meant "On the ground in Thessaloniki" I believe.
Wow, such an awesome experience for Miles getting to go up front at the end!
as much as some criticize US airlines for having FAs start securing the cabin at 18K feet and cutting service as a result.
US FAs are not going to dust themselves off and keep going if this happens.
also, the FAA requires 45 minutes of fuel after the intended diversion point; other countries might not require that
I guess the joke about the flight time being 3 hours plus was prophetic.
I was on a simple domestic flight once with sudden (CAT?) turbulence that threw the cart over my seat! The cabin attendant magically threw her body flat in the aisle. She later explained this was not a fall but a trained safety maneuver.
I gotta use that line next time I trip over my own feet. "It's a trained safety maneuver! See how deft I was?"
Had a similar diversion via Milan & back when a thunderstorm over Pisa (PSA) caused a lot of circling and puking last summer. Landed almost 3 hours late too, but just relived to be at the right airport.
Interesting read and a good outcome.
Were the captain's announcements in English and translated into German and Greek, or how did that work?
@ DKB -- The announcements were first in German and then in English. As you'd expect, they were always funniest and most detailed in German, but also excellent in English.
Opa! You really had to work to get to Greece this time... sheesh!