N830MH

Great! I'm glad to hear it. I'm so happy they are doing okay and doesn't have any problems at all. I am bit worried about Japanese populations who lives in another side of the town. I wasn't aware of that. How many people who is being killed during earthquake?

PRWeezer

From the MSP Fox affiliate, a first-hand account from pax on NRT-MSP:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/n...ke-mar-11-2011

Canarsie

I have permission to post the following regarding the safety of Delta Air Lines employees in Japan:

Detroiter

Today was a reminder that the little stuff we stress over (I admit I used to stress over them too in my working days), like "will my upgrade clear?" and "why didn't my priority tagged luggage come off first?" really is little stuff in the grand scheme of things.

I too give best wishes to all the DL employees in Japan, and to all the citizens and residents of Japan.

Panam Clipper

My wife and I just arrived from NRT on DL280 to Atlanta. We were walking down the aisle to our seats when the quake hit. Half an hour earlier we had been in the Skyclub. A few minutes after we settled in our seats the captain started providing info. He explained that we could not get off the plane because the terminal was being evacuated. A while later we were told that the flight was cancelled and that we would have to wait for instructions. Still later the captain told us that the runways had been inspected and that we would indeed be flying home after a new flight plan was prepared. Finally we left the gate area about 4 and a half hours after normal departure time. All the time the crew was cheerful and very helpful providing water and snacks. Many passengers were trying to phone or send messages with very little success.
I think that very few realized the magnitude of the disaster until we arrived in Atlanta.

elektrik

Excuse the dumb question as I've never felt an earthquake, but what did it feel like on the plane during the quake? Given the gear's ability to handle landing, I'm curious how much of that was felt onboard.

Lots of chaos there, but I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if they didn't have the extremely strict building codes and innovative quake tolerance engineering.

Add me to the list of well-wishers for everyone in Japan.

EVA777

While at NRT on Wednesday, the NAA was conducting an earthquake drill.

My thoughts go out to everyone in Japan.

dpao

My wife and I were on DL173 JFK-NRT-MNL and we were diverted to CTS; the quake had struck shortly before we were about to start our approach into NRT.

several DL flights stuck on the tarmac for 10hrs :P but still, all of us felt very lucky to have escaped the brunt of the danger. And major kudos to the flight crew for keeping it together all throughout.

We're still stuck in CTS, @DeltaAssist and delta.com say that our new flight (DL9861) will depart CTS-NRT at 8pm but airport announcements have been saying nothing's absolutely confirmed yet. Still waiting for 9861 to show up on CTS' departure board.

Meanwhile-- shocked beyond words at the images playing on every local channel. Horrifying.

dpao

-- forgot to mention, our NRT-MNL leg doesn't exist yet as of this moment. Hoping to get help from DL agents at NRT. Delta has absolutely no presence in CTS, so it's so hard to fix anything from here.

Panam Clipper

It felt as if a giant hand was shaking the whole plane. Some people lost their balance as they were walking down the aisles, but it was all rather calm. Certainly not as bad as what we saw on the video of the Skyclub.

We were very lucky that the incoming flights had landed, when the quake struck. If it had happened an hour or so earlier they would have been all diverted and who knows for how long we would have been stuck in Japan.

underattack

I was on DL059 San Francisco – Tokyo Narita which got diverted to Sapporo. Great crew kept us as informed as they could and kept everybody calm. The captain "walked the plane" several times to talk to passengers in person. There was one elderly person I think that had medical issues. After about 7 hrs on the tarmac, the pilot tried to fly to Osaka to get better ground support. We made it to the runway but didn't get permission to take off from the japanese aviation authority.

Passengers stayed very calm and helped each other. Some passed out extra snacks to fellow passengers as there was no more food on board. It helped that the plane wasn't very full (1/2 - 2/3 full maybe?) I think we were one of the first flights to let out. The terminal was totally empty as we got past immigration and all counters/stores were closed. I didn't try to leave the airport, but some passengers said it wasn't even possible as the airport was closed.

Somewhat scary about this: The pilot/captain (sorry if I am not getting my airline lingo right) told us that he was low on fuel as we landed and had declared a low fuel emergency. Due to the number of diversions, traffic into Sapporo was backed up. It appears that the spare fuel calculations don't include reserves for mass diversions like in this case. He said several other planes where in the same situation.

I was lucky that my company found me a flight out. The last I heard was that no Delta flight would leave until at least 7pm on Saturday ( we landed around 5pm Friday and got of the plane 1am Saturday I think).

Sapporo isn't a very big airport. I think I saw 4 or 5 747s among many other large planes parked there that night.

Greg Reed

I've been traveling monthly to Japan for a while, but by some amazing luck I changed my return flight from NRT from Friday to Thursday, so managed to get out before the disaster struck. Like someone else mentioned at the top, there were pre-quakes on Wednesday (7.2) and Thursday morning (6.6), in the same location but felt in Yokohama/Tokyo area. The Thurs am one, felt high up in the hotel, was enough for me to think "glad I'm going home early". Woke up Fri am at home to see this Instant Message from a friend in our office there :

3/11/2011 4:27:13 AM Today, big earthquake again.
3/11/2011 4:27:23 AM All train is stopping now.
3/11/2011 4:28:16 AM Location is similar as previous area, but Yokohama and Tokyo area is also in problem for public train, etc.
3/11/2011 4:28:38 AM Big Tsunami came to north Japan area....
3/11/2011 4:29:09 AM TAJ-Yokohama member can't go back to our home now.
3/11/2011 4:30:01 AM I think you can see these information via Internet.
3/11/2011 4:34:36 AM Today's earthquake is 1st or 2nd big one in my life. Here in Yokohama also had a big earthquake.

Scary stuff. My thoughts and condolences go out to those who lost family and friends ... terrible times.

aresef

Check this out from Yokota Air Base:

http://www.yokota.af.mil/news/video/...id=3&sid=18935