Originally Posted by ksgalbre

I guess I'll be the first actual passenger to check in, this flight was definitely an adventure for sure. I apologize in advance for the length.

We were approximately five hours out from Johannesburg (I had just finished my movie and was laying my seat back to try to sleep) when the pilot came on the intercom with an announcement that they had an engine indication light on and we were diverting to Ascension Island and would be there in about an hour. As you can imagine there was not going to be any sleep after that.

We landed at almost exactly an hour later, about 3,000 miles from Johannesburg. The landing was actually fairly smooth but the airfield did have a few emergency vehicles ready just in case (I think there were only six or so vehicles, they don't have many) and no they were not lightning the runway with their headlights. After landing we were told to stay in our seats for the time being and maybe 15-20 minutes later we were told that we were going to be getting off the plane and to start getting together our personal belongings. Probably 5 minutes after that we started to get off the plane at about 1:30am local time (8:30pm EST).

When we deplaned we went to the British "terminal". There was probably only about 40 seats inside for people to sit on but the evening was very nice so most people sat on large picnic benches outside or leaned against the walls and fence. They luckily had a tiny little play area in terminal already there where the little kids could play. They brought in a few of the cold sandwiches meant for the midflight snack to the base but there were not enough for everyone. We were also short on the refreshment said, the Brits brewed up some coffee and tea and there was a water fountain but that is all we had (I was smart and grabbed a few extra water bottles before we landed). We had some weak cell phone reception at the base so most of us were able to text or call people back in the States if we needed to.

About two hours after we had landed they finally powered down the plane and we noticed the pilots and flight crew get into some vehicles and drive away. This was really my only criticism on how everything was handled. I realize they were still figuring things out at the time but it would have been nice for them to send one of the pilots or maybe the crew leader to the terminal and just say "This is what we know and this is what we don't know and we'll tell you more when we have more information". It would not have taken very much and it would have made a lot of people happier, there was definitely some grumbling that no one was keeping us in the loop. Most of the information we go were just rumors of someone sat next to someone who knew someone working at Delta and they were told this and that. Eventually about an hour after that one the Brits got on the intercom to start organizing transportation to the bases for accomodations and mentioned that Delta was working on bringing a new plane there but he had not heard of a timeframe yet.

The transport of everyone to the British and American bases were a little disorganized, you could definitely tell they were making it up as they went which was completely understandable. They were breaking people out into groups of four (started with elderly and children, then moved into couples and travel partners before going to single travelers). Those who went to the British base were in four to a room and had a communal bathroom. Not the greatest of accommodations but it was better than sleeping in the terminal. I was lucky and got sent to the US base where we all got our own rooms with bathrooms, I got into my room around 5:30am local.

When I got up I went to the mess hall for lunch which was free for all the passengers. At the mess hall we had our first "official" communication from Delta which was just a note saying they were expecting the replacement plane to arrive between 5:00-6:00 pm and that a dinner would be available after 3:30pm. We were not restricted in our movements in any way on the US base, I spent a lot of time walking around and I talked to a couple people who had made it down to Georgetown which was apparently a couple miles from the base. The base shop definitely had a good day, I saw dozens of people walking around with Ascension Island shirts on.

Everyone on the British side started coming over to the US base at around 5:00pm and buses started coming at about 6:00 to start bringing everyone back to the airfield, everyone made it over there by around 7:00. There was a British plane there that had arrived in the morning (and yes apparently they did clip their wing with our broken plane) so we all had to huddle in the firestation for a little bit as that plane was taxing and took off. At about 8:00pm we were told we could board the plane and so you just had a mass of 250 people just walking across the tarmac to board the plane. Everyone was boarded and settled down withing 20-25 minutes, everyone was ready to get home. Once airborne we were let known that because the replacement plane had left in the middle of the night they were not able to load it with any catered food so we just had snacks available (at some point they also ran out of water but beyond that they seemed to have the usual beverage service).

We arrived in Atlanta at about 2:30am EST and they opened immigration just for us. Once we got through customs and baggage claim (the pilots moved all of the luggage from the broken plane to the new one) there was a host of Delta reps waiting to get everything setup. I'm a Platinum member so they had a room setup for us where they gave us our boarding passes for connecting flights, hotel key (I declined as I had a 7:40 flight and it didn't make sense to go to a hotel just for a couple hours), and for the sky priority members they had food bags with a sandwich and snacks available (they had some food available for everyone else as well). After that they let everyone who was staying in the airport into the Sky Lounge in the F Terminal.

It was definitely an interesting experience. It some ways it was kind of nice to stop and have a nice shower and a sleep in a bed. The people at both the British and American bases were all every nice and accommodating and aside from lack of communication after we landed at Ascension I thought Delta stepped up nicely.