Originally Posted by Sir Richard
Strange that..on a similar dark and stormy night some years ago at JFK there were NO departures for about 3 hours. Gate holding all round.
When somebody asked "What is our number for start?" the reply was something like : "If I told you #117, everybody else would ask"
Few others asked.
Pax fed and watered on board before departure so they all got a couple more hours sleep across the pond.
If I was more motivated I could get you a date that might match. Four hour taxi-out. We were number one for Takeoff for 2 hrs, most of that shutdown on the runway in position and hold(with no engines running we weren't moving anyway). Tower - "trust me, no one's going to land, or takeoff, for a long time."
At one point JFK tower said, "you can start them up if you like and takeoff. You'll be the only a/c in NY departure's area. You can fly any altitude and any heading you like." My response "thanks but no thanks." No one else volunteered so no flights departed.
Just before we became #1 a DL 767-300 flight departed of 22R with a left turn towards Europe. We were facing 130 degrees (taxiway Z ???)(just prior to 22R departure end) and could see the radar picture. We had no interest in departing, especially in *that* direction. 'Shadowed' the flight on departure control frequency using TCAS and radar picture. "Moderate to severe turbulence out of 2000' ". Duh!
JFK-LAX flight. During the course of the night we had about 8-10 different clearances. Routings included flying NE towards BOS and then north into Canada and as far SW departure towards ATL and then westbound.
Nasty, nasty, night.