Waiting for the plane

Charissa and Emily, Elsie and I were sitting at the airport waiting for the Jaquiths to arrive. When we left home Korean Air was reporting that the plane would land about 4:00. With that information, we left our house at 4:00 for the 45 minute ride to the airport. When we arrived at the airport the screens there said that the expected time of arrival was 4:15. The only problem was that it was already 4:45 when we arrived and the plane still had not landed.

So we waited anxiously along with many Mongolians for word of the flight's arrival. About 5:30 the flight from Seoul was removed from the arrival list. I went to the information desk to ask what had happened. A crowd of Mongolians had already arrived and  begun to ask questions.

“When will the plane from Seoul land?"

“We don't know.”

“Will it land tonight?”

“Maybe”

“Should we drive back into town and return later?”

“Perhaps. I don't know.”

“Where is the plane?”

“We don't know.”

You can see from the information desk's vague answers that nothing was clear. So I called Kristie. What does the Internet say about KE 867?

After a quick search of the Korean Air website she reported back, “It says that the flight will land at 4:10 [remember it's already 5:30] but in the notes section it says that it has been delayed because of ‘aircraft operational condition.’” I wondered whether the plane was over Mongolia or en-route to return to Seoul. I suspected that if Korean Air had a malfunctioning plane they would order it back to Korea for maintenance.

But no one at the help desk would tell us exactly what was happening. I called Kristie again to tell her that we might come home, and I would return to the airport that evening after the plane had landed. She agreed that such a plan might be best. I talked to the children to tell them that we would be leaving the airport without their grandparents. Then I headed to the information desk one more time to see if there was any new information.

The ladies at the help desk had left, all except one lady who did not seem to be answering questions. Without any more information, I decided to head home. As I headed back to where the girls were seated, the airport voice announced that the plane had landed. An audible sigh was heard throughout the waiting area.

The strange thing was that I later asked Kristie’s father what had happened on the plane. He told us that it was not clear to them what had happened. The plane left a little late (as the internet information indicated). But they circled for about an hour before landing he told me. The pilot came on the intercom several times to mention that the plane was waiting for clearance to land from the airport. But the airport did not seem to know where they were either.

Charissa was the closest to a reasonable solution when she mentioned it was like the Bermuda Triangle.