ksgalbre welcome to FT and thank you so much for your report "from the ground." No need to apologize for the length. A bunch of us here are fascinated by all the details of your ASI adventure and how DL handled the logistics.

My interpretation is that the kind folks on ASI and DL did an overall awfully good job of taking care of the passengers, including making arrangements to open immigration and an ATL SC in the middle of the night. I love the idea of a special room for Plats to be informed of their rebooking details, including hotel arrangements.

The exception seems to have been when the crew departed without any announcements. I assume that they were sent to the limited basic hotels on Ascension Island in order to get the mandated rest so as to be able to fly everyone home once the rescue plane arrived, but it would have been good if this had been explained, rather than just letting passengers watch them leave the airport. It reminds me a bit of the recent story of a Chinese carrier diverting due to weather to a small airport where that airline had no operations; passengers then watched the crew fly away in an empty plane with no explanation or arrangements for how the passengers were expected to get out of that place.

Please please please return at your convenience to give us more details of your adventure. We'd love to hear more!