Jakarta, Sunday, 1995-06-11
Okay, back in Jakarta to find that the engineer who said the Hajj never ends cleanly was right. They've added even more flights, including one for the crew I've been with. We have to show 12 hours from now, so only time to sleep, really, and I am exhausted. At the room here I can at least get it dark. We'll ferry the airplane back to Jeddah and then, since there will be no airplane coming later for us to take back later to Jakarta, we'll stay on the airplane and deadhead back. It's not going to be pleasant. We'll be tired and the stench in back is really getting bad. They'll block off the back row of the upper deck for us, so that won't be as bad a smell as if they put us downstairs. Anyway, we'll deadhead back here, get minimum rest, and then in theory we'll all get on an airplane getting out of here. There's supposed to be 75 of us and 100,000 pounds of parts and the like. The flight plan is supposed to be 12 hours to Honolulu and 11 hours to New York. Nobody knows yet who will fly the legs, just that one crew will take it to Hawaii and then switch with another crew for the Honolulu to New York leg. If crew scheduling says I can go home, I've thought of getting off in Honolulu and jumpseating home from there. However, Honolulu is known as very difficult to jumpseat out of. I'm probably better off just staying on and then backtracking from New York. I'll just have to play it by ear.
There's more to tell, but I've got to get to bed.
Terry