CO connection flight 9291 West Pallm Beach to Nassau Int, Bahamas

here we are, part 3 with the exciting bit I promised 🙂

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Flight Details:

Continental Airlines Flight 9291
West Palm Beach to Nassau International
Scheduled Departure Time Palm: 20:00 Local.
Scheduled Arrival Time Nas: 21:10 Local.
Actual time of departure Palm: 20:00 local
Actual time of arrival Nas: 20:55 local.
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The departure gate for my flight to Nassau was right next to the gate I had just arrived at from Newark. The departure lounge I entered was fairly small. Certainly the smallest I had seen yet. It was more like the waiting lounge for a doctors practice. Though I assume it was one of many as I noticed the terminal was some what larger than the hall/room I was currently in.

3 Continental agents stood talking at the small desk beside gate B2.
Bewildered, tired and exhausted I handed my boarding pass and Passport over to what I assume was the more senior agent there. She greeted me as if we had known each other before. Very friendly I thought.
“Your private plain is waiting for you” she joked as it turned out I was the sole passenger for Continental Connections flight 9291 to Nassau.
The agent processed my boarding pass and handed me a Bahamas Government immigration card. She then spoke to someone on a two way radio, I was too tired to catch anything of what she said or the reply.
I entered short exchange with one of the other agent at the desk. I joked; “I won’t have to fight off anyone for a window seat on this little grasshopper”. She laughed, either at the joke or my accent. I didn’t care I was happy to be getting on the final flight for the day. I explained to her “I’m used to low cost carriers you see, first come first serve”. She laughed louder; I still didn’t know what at. I looked at the agent holding the radio, she had just opened what looked more like a fire escape than a boarding gate.
“There you go, be careful as you walk across the ramp” she said, gesturing with the radio in her hand at a Beechcraft 1900D that was sitting some 150 yards away.

I thanked her, collected the rip off portion of my boarding pass and my passport and headed off. I could see a ramp rat walking over from the 757 I had only just got off with my hold luggage in his hand. As I arrived at the small commuter plane, the ramp rat had just deposited my bag in the rear hold and closed the cargo door.

I could also see the First Officer doing a walking around, a rather tall female. I climbed up the boarding stairs that were an integral part of the door. I as I stepped onto the cabin floor the Captain welcomed me aboard from his seat. “I’ll be your passenger tonight” I responded.
He told me to pick any seat I wanted. There are only 16 passenger seated in the B1900D in a 2 abreast configuration with the back row featuring a middle seat.
Having noticed that there was no cockpit door I placed my briefcase on seat 1A and said “I’ll sit here so I can watch you guys, I like to see the light n dials at work”. The Captain suggested sitting in seat 2A so that I could look out of the window and watch them work too. I agreed and duly sat myself in 2A, placing my briefcase under seat 2F. As I fastened my seatbelt the Captain explained that there was a reading light above me and that once we got underway they would be turning off the main cabin lights. I switched on the reading light and nodded as a sign of my understanding. The first officer then boarded and greeted me. She shouted something out of the door and proceeded to pull on a cord attached to the door, closing it manually.
I got a brief safety demonstration by the F/O as she asked me to read the safety card and take note of the operation of the emergency exit hatches. All in all are rather pleasant affair.

Not long after that I watched as the number 1 engine began cranking over and built up speed before finally catching and turning over nicely. Number 2 engines followed shortly after. Once the checks were done the Captain added power to the throttles and we moved, turning hard right under our own power out of the stand and onto the taxi way. As forewarned the cabin lights went out as we made out way to the runway. I was disappointed to notice the cabin windows had a dark brown tint to them, making taking pictures in the failing light of that evening impossible. Such a shame as the scenery was lovely.

We entered the runway and immediately take of power was applied. Man the B1900D is sure loud on take off. After a few seconds of rumbling down the runway we lifted off effortlessly into the evening sky.

We climbed to our cruise alt and headed off to the Bahamas. It was now completely dark. Using my briefcase as a makeshift desk I passed the time by filling out the immigration card for the Bahamas and after that by watching the weather radar on the main instrument panel on the flight deck.
Before long we started descending into the clouds below.

I could sea out of the cockpit windshields and saw a thick black cloud getting closer as we flew towards it and eventually entered it. The small B1900D began to shake, lightly at first then got pretty rough. We then dropped a good few feet before it smoothed out a little. At the same time I noticed 2 red lights illuminate on the center annunciator panel that is located on the glare shield of the instrument panel. Master warning lights either end of said glare shield also lit up. This concerned me a little but a flick of a switch by the captain extinguished the lights. As we left the cloud the turbulence subsided only to step up again as we entered more cloud. The red lights returned. The Master warning lights flashed this time. Another switch was flicked to extinguish them. Now my eyes were on springs. Once, ok could be a fluke but twice now. It started to rattle yet again as we passed through another cloud. The light came on again, now accompanied by yellow caution lights beside the master warning light. Adrenaline began to pump as I watched the lights flash. The captain reached for a switch again this time not only did the lights go out but the TCAS and weather radar too. They flickered off and shortly after reset and booted up again. I also noticed that one of the gauges above the captain now showed zero.
At this point I was gripping the back of Seat 1A tightly.
I kept calm and watched the crew work. Looking out of the window I could see cars moving along the orange street light lit streets as we descended further. Ahead I could make out the shoreline and the runway, almost akin to St. Maartens in the dutch antillies not too far away.
We crabbed a little as a crosswind gusted; some wind shear got us shaking again. We landed fairly firmly with the crew slamming on the anchors hard. As we slowed down we turned off the runway. While taxiing in I could see sitting at its gate was a British Airways 767-300. “Typical” I thought, “I fly damn near 5000 miles and the first thing I see is a BA jet”. Still it was worth it because moments later I caught a glimpse of the 737 painted partially in the livery I had designed for Bahamasair
We were soon parked up beside a Bahamasair Dash 8-300 with our engines winding down. Nervously I quizzed the crew about the red lights.
“Oh one of the AC buses was acting up, we tried to correct it but we lost a generator” the captain explained calmly. I thanked them for getting me safely on the ground and bid them farewell. I was handed my bag from the hold by a ramp rat and I entered the Nassau terminal via a doorway and a 3 flight set of stairs.

Inside it was deserted. I could see the departure lounges through a glass wall to my left as I followed the signs for immigration. The lounges were deserted. Not surprising as it was 21:00 local time and the only other plane I saw moving was an American Eagle ATR 42.

I passed immigration very quickly, probably because I was the only one passing through!
With my passport stamped I exited the arrivals hall and met up with my friend, Captain De Barros of Bahamasair.

The end…. Now for the flights home, oi vey!