Grounded

It’s been about 4 years since I last wrote a blog. I was on a two month trip to Iraq and thought it was a good opportunity to keep friends and family back home up to date on what I was doing and seeing. I have been contemplating writing one recently and thought an assignment to cover former President Bill Clinton on a trip to Africa would be a good time to start up.

The seven day journey begins in New York, well, Newark, NJ to be exact and travels through four countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal) before finishing at the World AIDS conference in Mexico City. Needless to say, I have been very excited about this trip.

It’s Monday afternoon and I am heading to the Signature Flight Service FBO at the Newark International Airport for a 6pm wheels up to Ethiopia. President Clinton is traveling with a delegation that includes his daughter Chelsea and people like Tom Vilsack, Terry McAuliffe, Joe Wilson, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and others. People seem excited and are having fun chatting. Myself and fellow photographer Barb Kinney had a really nice conversation about photography with Tom Vilsack and his wife. Nice people.

As the 6 o’clock flight time neared we were notified that there was going to be a delay on our plane due to a maintenance problem. The plane I would fly on, an antiquated 727, was a plane that I was familiar with since it had been used on the Hillary campaign. Bill would be flying on another plane, a 767 that was apparently donated by Google for the trip.

We finally got onto the plane, which was nice and comfy with big plush seats. At around 11:00 pm we taxied over to the runway for take off. After a 20 minute wait we were up. The engines roar and we rumble down the runway and then abort the take off. We taxi back to the terminal and pretty much sit for an hour or so while the problem is rectified. Barb and I have now consumed much wine and are having some good conversation.

Near midnight we finally go wheels up, we’re on our way to Puerto Rico, our first refueling stop. We drink more wine, Barb takes an Ambien to help her sleep. I settled into a movie, Barb’s sleeping pill was starting to kick in. And then, about an hour and a half into the flight, Jay Carson comes back and says we are going back to Newark. The plane’s windshield had cracked. The trip was off to a miserable start.

At 3:15 am I checked into my room at the Marriott near the airport. We wouldn’t know the status of replacement parts for the plane until morning. I guess they had to wait for the antique plane parts store to open.