Emergency landing

Well, it’s Monday, March 1 at 1pm and based on our travel itinerary, we should be arriving to Charlotte NC in about 2 hours. However, the team is currently at the Imperial Hotel in Kampala Uganda. Our being here is a result of our flight being delayed 4 hours with that resulting in an emergency landing.

Minutes following takeoff, it was announced our plane would be returning to the Entebbe airport due to the left engine not working properly. In actuality, the left engine wasn’t working at all. I had noticed (as well as other passengers) as the plane initially took off, it didn’t sound quite right.

The plane returned to Entebbe and made an attempt to land. It seemed we were going a bit fast as we descended. Just as we hit the ground, the plane came in at an angle. As we “landed” all the tires burst. The plane continued barreling down the runway, never slowing down. My heart began to sink as I thought, “this plane is going to run out of runway…”. All of a sudden the pilot aborted the landing and the plane ascended again.

The hum of the plane was extremely worrisome yet the plane obviously couldn’t land safely. The pilot began dumping fuel. After about 5 minutes the pilot started a second descent. I continued praying as I looked around. There was a lot of tension among the passengers and the flight crew. The air was filled with an intense burning smell. The pilot slammed the brakes for what seemed like eternity as we touched down.

There was an announcement that all passengers would be “off loading” the plane with our belongings. The fire brigade as well as buses surrounded the plane. The passengers from the plane were quickly ushered off the plane, onto the buses, and returned to the airport.

After returning to the building, KLM employees were making their rounds to all the huddled passenger groups, explaining what happened and what the protocol would be.

The plane’s left engine failed, the breaks caught fire, a lower cabinet caught fire and the tires had burst. ---It’s a miracle we were alive as the pilot made an emergency landing with multiple issues.

The only flights out of Entebbe to Amsterdam are late in the night. We were told another plane would have to be sent and it would be the following evening before anything would arrive. We were given no details from KLM but they had booked all passengers a room at 2 local hotels. We were assigned to the Imperial Hotel and it is at this Hotel that we would spend the next three days.