Leon and I shook our heads as we stared at the line of airplanes in front of us that we had been instructed to follow. In contrast to the other line for JFK’s Runway 22 Right, our line wasn’t moving. The weather on the initial route was preventing our departure. The frustrating part was that we had reached the number three position up until being banished to the other kingdom.
The trip hadn’t started out well from the moment we began boarding our passengers. The June heat wave was taking its toll. With our APU rendered inoperative, air conditioning was only available through the jet bridge-supplied pre-conditioned air (PCA) unit. And as luck would have it, the PCA unit was also inoperative. The only source of air was the two air carts used for starting. The carts externally pressurize the airplane bleed system through the packs. The packs were doing their best just to cool the cabin down to 79° … and that was only in one section. Judging by the matted hair and glossy sheen on the cheek of our purser, we hadn’t been very successful in the forward part of the airplane.
