British Isles Tour 2001

Day Seventeen:  Friday, July 13, 2001

Homeward Bound!!!

To all those who have kept our children
in their safe care on this tour, thank you!!
We can't wait to see you all!!!

Anchorage

10:30 pm:  The plane is just leaving British Columbia and entering the Yukon Territory.  Current estimated time of arrival is still  11:31 p.m.  We'll be leaving for the airport shortly.  See you there!!  It's been a great journey!!!

8:30 pm:  The plane is now flying over Saskatchewan, on its way to Alberta Province, Canada. Just a reminder that you can track NW847 at the following websites:
http://www.netfinderusa.com/travel/ft/ (based on Federal Aviation Administration data) Fill in only the airline (Northwest) and flight number (847) and click the "Go!" button..
http://travel.airwise.com/arrivals/nw/index.html (based on Northwest Airlines data) Fill in the flight number (847) in the box.  Hit the "find flight" button.
Current estimated time of arrival is 11:31 p.m.

6:30 pm:  They're on their way home!!!  Northwest Flight 847, a Boeing 752, departed Minneapolis/St.Paul Airport at 9:20 p.m. CDT; 6:20 p.m. AKDT!  Current estimated arrival time is 11:08 p.m. (this will undoubtedly change).  I'll give frequent updates.  I will move this page to the British Isles Tour section now.

5:00 pm:  Matt just called from Minneapolis/St.Paul.  The flight was very smooth until the very end, and even then, the turbulents were mild.  Landing was perfect.  Everybody is SO excited to come home!  It didn't take long at all for the group to go through U.S. Customs.  Matt had a line of kids waiting behind him to call home, so our conversation was brief, but it was wonderful to hear from him!  I can't wait until our group arrives home, and I know everyone else feels the same way!  When they take off again, I will move this page to the main tour site.  Not long now!

3:20 pm:  They've landed!  Second website gives arrival time as 6:17 p.m. CDT (based on FAA information) .

2:45 pm: It looks like the plane has just flown over the Great Lakes region (am I a nervous mother, or what!).  Current estimated arrival at Minneapolis/St. Paul is 6:15 CDT; 3:15 here.  When they take off for their last leg of the trip, I'll move this page back over to the tour section again. I know it's a hassle to deal with the username and password.

11:30 am:  You can track our group's flight with real-time flight tracking at http://travel.airwise.com/arrivals/nw/index.html . (This one really works!)  Simply put the flight number (55) in the box.  Hit the "find flight" button.  This should bring up current flight details and a map of the current flight location.  Right now, they're flying over the Atlantic Ocean.  As you can see, they didn't actually take off until 5:18 p.m. in Amsterdam, so their flight was delayed by nearly an hour.  They have a more than 2-hour stopover in Minneapolis/St. Paul, so they should have plenty of time for their connecting flight.  This site http://www.netfinderusa.com/travel/ft/ also provides current flight location and details.  Fill in only the airline (Northwest) and flight number (55) and click the "Go!" button..  The plane is a Boeing 747-200.  Abbreviation for Amsterdam Airport (according to second website) is EHAM.

8:00 am:  Departure and arrival information for NW flight 55 from Amsterdam to Minneapolis is listed below.  This is from Northwest Airline's Flight and Gate Status page at http://www.nwa.com/travel/flifo/ .  Apparently flight departure was delayed, waiting for connecting passengers (I hope they weren't our connecting passengers!).  Actual departure time was 17:00 (5 pm Amsterdam time; 7 am in Anchorage).  When I called Matt last night (early morning there) the wake-up time had been changed from 5 am to 8 am, because they had switched from Glasgow airport to Edinburgh airport.  Matt wasn't able to get information on the new flight time and number to Amsterdam, but I would assume that the two connecting flights on Northwest are the same as originally scheduled.

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Departure							Arrival
Airport	Sched	Actual	Date	Gate	Equip		Airport	Sched	Est	Actual		Date	Gate	Weather
AMS	1635	1700	13JUL	NONE	747-200		MSP	1825	1823		E	13JUL	G6	MSP
	DELAYED AWAITING CONNECTING PASSENGERS

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