Haiti — Tarmac of Miami

Want to go into missions? Get used to change. On the fly. Or better put, IN flight. About 25 minutes into our flight to Port au Prince and mere miles off the coast of Grand Bahamas, our happy little plane took a wide turn to the right. It was gradual, mind you, and barely noticeable but definitely away from our desired destination. The captain came on the loud speaker. "Ladies and gentlemen, you may have noticed that we've been making a turn," he said. "We're returning to Miami because of a pump problem. It's probably nothing major but we're going to go back to Miami as a precaution." Goodbye Atlantic Ocean. Hello, once again, Miami!

The passengers (including yours truly) were all in the middle of filling out customs and visa paperwork. Seems to be much less paperwork for Haiti than some countries. Interesting. So we came back.

After a rough landing and stop, the plane came to rest on the Tarmac, the pilot shut off the engines and fire trucks and security personnel surrounded the plane. After all checked out (I guess) we were towed to an open gate. The passengers were directed to another gate where a plane was waiting and now we're waiting to board. I'm not sure what this means for our second flight in Port. Guess we'll find out!

As always, keep us in your prayers!

-- John