dominican journal

After an enjoyable and relaxing two weeks in Belgium, I’m back in the D.R. It was very nice to see you all again and I’m sorry I couldn’t stay longer or at least leave at a more convenient time. Leaving at 3am on new year’s eve is, to say the least, a pain in the ass.

My flight from Brussels to the D.R. went smoothly until our stopover in Puerto Plata (final destination Punta Cana) where the plane experienced technical difficulties. At first we were allowed to stay on the plane as they tried to solve the problem but after an hour or so they announced that we should get off and wait in the airport terminal while they addressed the as yet unknown technical issue preventing us from taking off again. I can’t say I was surprised by the delay given that it was a cheap Jetair flight and especially after my recent transatlantic travelling troubles.

Following a two hour wait in the airport terminal in which we were given no information whatsoever as to what the problem was and when we might be allowed to board the flight again, they announced that the flight had been cancelled and that we should go downstairs to collect our luggage.

I found my case amongst a swarm of disgruntled Belgian tourists, many of whom had complaining youngsters to deal with. Having collected our luggage we all made a lunge at the Jetair rep dealing with our predicament. The poor woman had no one to help her and spent a good hour dealing with four hundred plus passengers on a case by case basis. Most wanted to go to Punta Cana but a surprising number wanted to go elsewhere (myself included). Those with very young kids were demanding to stay the night in a hotel and travel to Punta Cana the following day. All in all everybody seemed to have a different agenda and the woman was overwhelmed with complaints, requests and accusations as if it was her fault that our flight had been delayed.

After much waiting around I decided to go outside and check how much a cross-country taxi would cost. The sign by the waiting area claimed an exorbitant 8000 pesos but after much negotiation (in my best Spanish) with the woman in charge I got the price down to 6500 pesos. However, i decided this was still a rip-off and went back to the rep for any news on the bus they were trying to arrange that would drive us accross the country to where we wanted to go. I decided to take the bus and we left an hour later. The drive lasted six hours and I finally arrived in La Romana at 11pm.

Today, by pure chance or cosmic coincidence, I came across a Belgian news site that had an article about a delayed flight at Zaventem. As i read, I realised the flight in question sounded strangely like the one I’d been on just a few days earlier. The article describes a delayed Jetair flight coming from the Dominican Republic that got a rabbit stuck in on of its engines. The passengers in Brussels had been waiting two days for their flight to arrive.

I am pretty convinced that the plane described in the article is the one I was on because during my wait in the airport terminal I saw technicians opening up the right-hand jet engine for inspection – suggesting, of course, that there was problem somewhere in there. I also noticed the pilot showing the fight crew something stuck in the engine but at the time I couldn’t tell what that thing was. I have a photo which I will post next time I have my camera with me.

Here is the link to the article.