BD706 ORD-MAN 4th September – the voyage home

BD706 ORD-MAN – the voyage home

Having survived a week of work in San Francisco (tough life!) and the uneventful trip from San Francisco to Chicago O’Hare (757-200 N531UA managed an early arrival in O’Hare for a change), I found myself on the train that connects terminal 1 to terminal 5, which is Chicago’s dedicated international terminal. Arrayed on the terminal front as the train approached were a Transmeridian 757, an Alitalia 777 (still operating then?), a Turkish A340, an Aer Lingus A330, an Air France A340, a Pakistan 777, an Air India 747, a Scandinavian A330, a Swissair MD-11 (still operating then!), a KLM Asia 747-400 (which was apparently severely broken, as many KL passengers were being rebooked on Scandinavian), and the usual suspect as far as this trip was concerned – BMI A330 G-WWBB.

The international terminal check in was bedlam – difficult even to get through the door. The huge lines seemed to be generated by Pakistan, Air India and British Airways. Whilst I had been checked through from San Francisco to Manchester, my seat assignment of 36K on BD706 wasn’t what I was looking for so rather than go straight to the lounge I had to brave the check-in area. Fortunately, only one person standing in line at the BMI business check-in (ah, I love that gold card!) meant I was quickly reassigned 14K in the New Economy and was forcing my way through the queues to get to the security check. [As an aside, one reason why I HATE transiting through Chicago is that its necessary to come out of the secured area, get the train, and then go through security again whereas at Washington Dulles United to BMI connections remain in the secured area, obviating the need for a second wait in line]

Queuing for security took around ten minutes, and after the obligatory but perfunctory look at the lap-top and camera, and a much longer look at the 1:200 scale all-metal 707 model I was carrying, I was off to the Scandinavian lounge adjacent to gate 12. BMI tonight were using gate 11, so only a short walk would be required when boarding came around. The Scandinavian business lounge, which BMI also use at O’Hare, offers a nice view over a small section of the airport, which on this occasion was obscured (as it was each time I’ve been here) by a Turkish A340 TC-JDK being loaded. Soft or club style seating, and self service snacks (vegetables with dips, biscuits, fruit, etc) and a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages make the wait for the flight pleasant. Departure is in one and a half hours time – leaning back after a quick scan of “The Times” and a pleasant gin and tonic, I notice the Martinair MD-11 with the large red flowers on it taxi past before I decide to make a start on this report… Whilst I’m sat in the lounge, a staff member comes round and does the final documentation checks (and takes away the immigration card) to save us from standing in line at the boarding gate to have this done.

30 minutes prior to scheduled departure time, and there’s a call from the Scandinavian representative in the lounge, telling us that BD706 is ready for boarding. A short but slow stroll to the gate means that most of the passengers are on board before I arrive, so I’m immediately heading down the jet-way and to my seat, just one in front of where I sat on the outbound flight on the same aircraft. The cabin crew are already providing the customary pre-departure drinks and menus, and within a few minutes of me being seated are back to ask me what I want for dinner – the choice this time is sweet and sour chicken and rice, lasagne, or vegetable pasta bake. Having taken my order, I’m left to contemplate the final cans being loaded into the forward hold as departure time arrives.

Quite clearly, a few of the cans were late as pushback was almost instantaneous as soon as the hi-lo was moved away, some five minutes after scheduled departure time. We pushed back just after the Pakistan 777 (AP-BGL), but because there’s only a single taxiway in front of the international terminal and we were nearer the runway, we taxied ahead of the Pakistan flight. It occurred to me as we taxied that the PIA could be going to the same place as I was – Manchester.

Taxi out as seen on the seat-back PTVs

Evidently, despite our taxiing ahead of the Pakistan, ATC wanted the PIA airborne first as BD706 was sent round a little loop whilst AP-BGL took to the runway behind us. Quickly following the PIA departure, we too lined up and were off, initially heading north-west, before a right hand turn took us north east and to the shores of the lake where we climbed towards our cruising altitude. Chicago was very hazy which prevented a clear view of the ground, and pretty soon after takeoff it went dark. There were a few bumps as we headed up towards Ottawa, then Montreal, and then out over the north Atlantic – the lights of both of the Canadian cities were very clearly visible as the haze seemed to have disappeared.

The obligatory gin and tonics were soon flowing, followed by a pleasant salad, main meal (the lasagne was decidedly “American” style), and a delicious cookie-flavoured ice cream followed by cheese and biscuits and an American-style Kit-Kat. The cabin crew even brought lemon round for the tea – very thoughtful – and then followed that with liqueurs. Whilst all this was happening I watched a movie – something about the world freezing in a new ice age, which was a fairly typical disaster-type movie. BD706 had probably only ten passengers in “New Economy” (although the back-cabin regular economy looked fairly full) – maybe a result of many passengers apparently missing their connection from LAX due to the exploding torch incident earlier in the day. I therefore decided to grab four seats, lifted up the arm rests, laid out blankets and pillows, strapped myself in and headed for a sleep. Just before doing so, the cabin crew asked if I wanted to be woken for breakfast – I suppose so!

Next thing I knew was that it was indeed time for breakfast, we were one hour out of Manchester, and the sun was rising. Broken cloud below gave limited views of Ireland.

Inflight over Ireland just after sunrise

Breakfast was fruit, a cheese or bacon sandwich, followed by tea or coffee. The cheese was tasteless – probably American again! I watched the sun rise and a United 777-200 slowly diverge from the same heading as us over the Irish Sea but operating slightly lower, as it presumably headed towards London whilst we were heading along the north-Wales coast, over Liverpool (via the Wallesey VOR for a MIRSI 1B arrival) and on towards Ringway. Three trips round the MIRSI hold with something else fairly large just below us that stayed in the hold longer and a short trip around the foggy Manchester area took us onto a 24 approach with break-out from the fog (and visibility of the approach lights on the forward facing camera) coming over the road that runs from the airport into Cheadle – probably at about 150 feet.

Final approach to MAN runway 24 as seen on the seat back PTVs – note that this picture was taken on a previous flight when the visibility was somewhat better

Whilst taxiing to gate 29 (a kind of home-from-home as that’s where this odyssey began from) I looked over to the right and saw Pakistan 777 AP-BGL landing – so it had indeed been going to Manchester, and we beat it! Quickly off the aircraft, immigration was fast but baggage claim its usual slowness for Manchester in the morning, after which a quick dash for the car park got me on the way home.

Hope you enjoyed the report… My next trip is with BMI transatlantic again, but this will be in “The Business” (frequent flyer miles redemption) to Washington Dulles en-route to Los Angeles at the end of this month. I’ll hopefully post another report after that trip.

Andy