Princeton University Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Trip: Home At Last? Not So Fast
June 12, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
Right about the time that the Princeton men's lacrosse team should have been beginning its descent into New York City, about eight members of the team found themselves stuck in an elevator at the Radisson Hotel at the Dublin Airport. Needless to say, this was not a day for things to go smoothly.
Princeton's nine-day trip to Europe was supposed to come to an end Thursday with a 5 p.m. flight from Dublin to JFK Airport. The Tigers arrived at the airport at around 1 for their flight and then set out to kill the time between arrival and departure. The Dublin airport features all kinds of shops and restaurants, so that wasn't too tough a task.
The monitor then flashed that the flight was leaving from gate B26, so the travel party began to make its way there. Parked at the gate already was an Aer Lingus Airbus 330, all set to leave on time.
Except the flight never left at all. Princeton would spend more than eight hours in the airport waiting, as delay after delay was announced until the flight was finally cancelled. Princeton was rebooked on a flight Friday morning from Dublin to Shannon, on the other side of Ireland, with a transfer to JFK. The Tigers were then put in the airport hotel for the night.
The original Airbus did take off, headed instead to Copenhagen, Denmark. The Princeton flight was moved to gate B27, where another Airbus was parked.
It was a long, frustrating and sometimes funny day/evening in the airport. The first sign that something wasn't right came at 4 p.m., when it was announced that the flight was being delayed for "technical reasons" and that more information would be given at 5:30. Then 5:30 was pushed back to 6. And 6:15. And 7. And 7:45. And 8:15. And finally, after nine, it was announced that the flight was cancelled.
The reality, at least the airlines' version, was that the first Airbus was never intended to be the flight to JFK. Instead, the Airbus that was supposed to take Princeton home was instead switched to a flight to Boston, which needed to leave immediately because of regulations about how many hours crews can be in the air and when. That left the second jet for the JFK flight, only that jet had a handle in the cockpit which was jammed and needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, the airline was unable to dislodge the handle (which would have been repaired in 10 minutes had that been the case), and it was forced to cancel the flight and put up all the passengers in hotels.
During the time in the gate area, all of the passengers for the JFK flight seemed to get to know each other. The airline did hand out vouchers for food purchases in the airport, and passengers basically could get as many as they wanted. The TV screens played the Europe 2008 soccer games, starting with the Croatia win over Germany.
While the Princeton contingent waited, gate B26 was used for flights to London, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark and Prague. The nice Irish woman behind the desk, an older woman whom no one could get too mad at, did her best to soothe the situation and give everyone the hope that the flight would go as scheduled.
When it didn't, it was off to the Radisson and the new itinerary. There was a complementary dinner served, and then it was time to go upstairs. Several members of the team got on the elevator and pressed the buttons for the third and fourth floors. The elevator stopped almost to the first floor and stayed there for a few minutes. Eventually, Bob Schneider pushed the doors apart and the players had to jump out of the elevator by scaling the final two feet or so.
It was a pretty fitting ending to this day.