TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands The WRONG way to get to Virgin Gorda

THE WRONG WAY TO GET TO VIRGIN GORDA
3 Am tues morning, get up and drive to JFK for a 8 AM departure. Have breakfast at 7AM Get on the plane at 7:30AM. Plane takes off around 8:30 AM. We are in the air about 15 minutes, when we hit a flock of geese. Pilot levels the plane off, engines seem ok. He declares an emergency, which clears him to land back at JFK any way he can . Runway is full of fire trucks, ambulances, police. Plane lands great and we go back to the gate. While we were at the gate I asked the other passengers who wanted to get to the BVI, so I could figure some arrangements The plane wing is damaged and many rivets pop off. Now we look for a new plane. The first one available is enroute from Madrid, Spain and eventually we get back on board the new plane around 1:30PM. At 2PM they announce the catering has not brought the first class food. Now people are yelling to get this flight going. Eventually they took off at 3PM and we land STT around 6:30PM I had already called my STT taxi driver Kevin and told him to get 2 private boats to transport the BVI passengers to West End. Customs at West End could not have been more accommodating, getting a taxi for us which we loaded up with people and the baggage. (REALLY FULL). The lady taxi driver took us to Trellis Bay and we took the 11:15PM Speedy ferry to VG. In the meantime I had called Bitter End to arrange for a ferry but they informed me of the speedy ferry. I also called Mahogany car rentals and they told me the license plate of the rental car at the ferry dock.

Bottom line is I was able to get 10 persons to their destination that tues with the help of Kevin at STT He was great and took charge, arranging taxi's, boats and red cap at the airport. Thanks also to customs at West End for understanding our problem and helping us get transportation.
For me it was a 22 hour trip from Ct to the villa. By far the longest ever. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Just curious, why not just spend the night at STT and head over the next Morning? American might even have paid for the room.
G

I had some guests at the villa so wanted to get to the villa ASAP. They left this morning.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> Glad it was a happy ending!!!

Glad to hear the rest of your story/adventure.

You are very fortunate you all landed okay, considering past flock of geese encounters haven't always ended so well.

Like having to land in the Hudson River <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

Well Thorny, you may think you had a bad day but consider it from the standpoint of that goose... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Standpoint of the goose;

Big silver bird attacked me and beat me up. Apparently another goose hit the pilot windshield but did not break IT.

Indeed.good going T!!

liat in disguise?

Not to put too much of a fine point on it, but planes "land" at an airport, they "crash" into the Hudson River. Scully saves the day on that one! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Sorry that your trip was so bad - every once in while you need to pay for living in paradise.

Glad you made it! How do I get in contact with Kevin, your STT taxi driver? He sounds like a gem !

Kevin's # is 340-643-0025. It's good to give him a couple days' notice.

That is the problem with the whole plane to ferry debacle. We contract or ticket with AA or the airline to get us to STT. Once they drop us at STT they are done and we are on our own. We are on our own with a system of ferries not intended today to support or coordinate with the airlines bringing passengers to St. Thomas. Unless we are coming in a day early and leaving a day late. We no longer put our holiday in jeopardy with the ferries as the weak link in the chain to our destination.