Delay Talk

It is almost an hour and a half past departure time to Frankfurt and we are still here in Washington. I am on our 747, with 13 other Flight Attendants, while we wait for Maintenance to repair some emergency lights. These lights are the exit path lighting that illuminate the stairs from the Upper Deck in case of an emergency. These must work, or the plane cannot depart.

There is talk of the company snagging the plane that is arriving from Beijing now and having us use it. There is talk of changing planes to the one that is supposed to be used for the later flight to Frankfurt. Then, there is the most important one to us: our 29 hour layover is becoming shorter and shorter as the minutes tick by....