Sulsk

First off, I am glad to see you back flying jetblue again. You did go off the deep end a little last year though. Well would you believe it I was also on flt 1011 from boston to JFK this past Friday night. Unlike yourself I had a little bit of a different view of events as they occurred on this particular flight. I was one off 2 jetblue pilots riding in the cockpit Jumpseats. The other pilot was a very senior line checkairman giving the flying Captain a routine line check. This particular flight was booked full with 156 pax plus 2 additional pilots on cockpit jumpseats. Boarding was uneventful and with the main cabin door secured the captain released the parking brake at exactly 15:44 local, 1 minute ahead of schedule. From this moment on things up front got very busy. This particular airplane had a deferred APU which is essentially used to provide air and electrics to the aircraft on the ground when the engines are off. Additionally, the APU is the primary source for starting the engines on the ground. Because this APU was broken, the crew had to use a standard alternate procedure to start the number 2 engine. This alternate procedure envolves a little more time to complete but all in all the crew did a good job and started the engine. With the #2 engine started the crew called for pushback and it was at this point that events started to go down hill. ATC informed the crew that JFK was on a groundstop because of volume and there would be no updates for 45 minutes. There was also a comair CRJ going to JFK caught up in the delay program. With this delay the Captain of the flight was somewhat backed into a corner. Normally, the crew would just push a wait for a release close to the runway. In this situation you would simply taxi out stop close to the runway and shut both engines down and wait. But remember the airplane had no APU to start the engines close to the runway so the Captain, rightfully so, did not want to taxi out and sit with the #2 engine burning unnecessary gas. The Captain decided to remain at the gate and shut down his running engine. The ground people reconnected the jetbridge and hooked up ground power and air to the aircraft. The main cabin door was also reopened so that a cabin temperature probe could be placed at the doorway. The crew did a good job of updating the pax. I believe that 5 misconnects did get of as we waited at the gate. I did find it surprising that we had one pax who was making an international connection at JFK who only allowed himself 90 minutes to connect to JFK get his bags and then hoof it over to terminal 4. Getting back to the flight. At approximatedly 16:40 we were told by ATC that both comair and ourselves were released to JFK. Now were had to go over the engine start procedure again. At a little after 17:00 we took off from runway 22R. The flight itself was relatively quick although we had to slow down a bit for the enroute turbulence. Intially on descent the crew were told to expect landing on runway 22L. As per company procedure the flying pilot, in this case the Captain, performed a full arrival brief. Just as the captain was finishing his brief the approach controller changed the landing runway to 22R. All this happened quickly at a point when we were about 25 miles from landing. Both pilots were busy but they did a great job. We landed uneventfully and as per JFK tower control made 2 right turns off the runway to hold short runway 31L. At the hold short point the taxi clearance was cross 31L KA transition to taxiway Bravo, contact ground 121.90 goodnight. The Captain did exactly what he was instructed to do. Coming round the corner on taxiway bravo we couldn't believe it when we found ourselves nose to nose with a delta connection regional jet and a Delta 767. We were boxed in with no way to turn. The Captain read the situation perfectfully and immediately called jetblue ops for a supertug to tow us to the gate. His quick thinking saved us all a lot of time. mistakes happen from time to time but you have to lay the blame for this taxi delay squarely on the shoulders off JFK ATC. In conclusion, I believe that the crew of flt 1011 did an outstanding job under some very trying and difficult operational circumstances. As pilots, we control the aircraft but when it comes to ATC restrictions and delay programs we can only push so many buttons. Anyway I hope Sulsk that this long winded story gives you more insight to the events that unfolded during your flight. Come back and see us again and don't be afraid to pop your head into the cockpit and say hi.