God-forsaken Places I Have Diverted Into thread

[tango15]

I think it was a sneaky beaky terminal.

There was nothing there.

I was on a base on the other side of the Atlantic that also had nothing there, and was therefore not connected to Argentia.
It also wasn't connected to Iceland...because there was nothing there either.

Reminds me of those occasions being #2 to land at Akrotiri despite being the only aircraft in the circuit, but that was a different kind of Nothing There

The #1 might have been a U2/TR-1 that you weren't supposed to see, F3!

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Would that be the same U2 I sat in the cockpit of, that wasn't there, on a beer call (with invisible beer, obviously)?

[PHXPhlyer]

Gallup, New Mexico.
Flying the President of the Navajo Nation, Peterson Zah (PeteZah) to Window Rock, Arizona, the capital of the Navaho Nation.
W R fogged in so diverted to Gallup, just across the state line 20 miles away.
He had one of those newfangled cell phones and called to have his entourage picked up at Gallup.
After landing Gallup was fogged in as well and had to wait for Flight mService on the field to make a generous VFR weather observation.
Many people go to The Rez to see Indian ruins.
They go to Gallup and see ruined Indians.

PP

[G~Man]

Gallup, New Mexico.

Yep, have to agree. No cabs or places to eat close to hotel. I pulled in there once while ferrying a helicopter from New Yourk to Los Angeles.... No restaurants open by the time I got there, only the casino on the rez.....luckily they had a free bus that would pick you up to gamble, so it worked out.

[limeygal]

Dhaka for sure. I hear they have a newish airport. Glad to hear it. The old one was like a cattle shed. We were only supposed to do a quick turnaround, so of course we went tech. The body that was laying in the "terminal" when we arrived was still there the following day, but at least someone had thrown an old sack over him. Because of the war, communications with the outside world were not good. The next crew who were taking the a/c on were panicking when we didn't arrive as the Captain couldn't reach them. Comms have come a long way since then. We had to carry a navigator as there was a radio dead spot over the Indian Ocean. We consequently, had to nightstop while parts arrive. The hotel had to open up rooms for us. The only other guests were reporters who were covering the war. As luck (?) would have it, the same thing happened the following week and we had to nightstop again (brakes did something weird because of the heat). I had to visit the "catering unit" to reorder the meals for the next day. The catering guy took me through the jungle to another cattle shed. Before we set of he gave me a handful of stones to throw at the wild dogs should they approach. The unit was filthy. They were processing huge hands of bananas. The floor was littered with squashed tarantulas that had arrived with the bananas. I told the crew when I caught up with them at the baggage area (a grand term for a trestle table) not to eat the crew meals or anything that came on there. In fact, I can't remember eating anything until I got back to Dubai. I was still clutching the stones when we got to the hotel. (Apologies if I bored you with this-I'm pretty sure I have posted about this before.)

[1DC]

About a year or so after I had married Mrs 1DC around about 1967/8, I told her my shipping company had changed the rules and she could join me on my next trip to sea so she duly packed her job in and we met 4 other souls at Heathrow to fly to Saudi Arabia.AS luck would have it the carrier was going to be PIA,not a lot of choice in those days, the route was LHR-Istanbul-Kuwait-Dharan-Karachi. Our Boeing 707 arrived over Kuwait in the early hours of the morning at about 30000 feet and lost height by doing steep spirals before landing with most peoples ears popping and aching.We were never told why. Just before departure from Kuwait we were told that because of a sandstorm at Dharan we would be going direct to Karachi. This caused a bit of a riot because about 20 people wanted to get off in Dharan and a Saudi said that they should put us off at Kuwait and book us on the morning flight from Kuwait to Dharan. After about an hours arguing the pilot said that the visibility had cleared at Dharan and we would be stopping there, everyone sat down and we took off. Just after the wheels came up the pilot said he was very sorry but the visibility had come down again and we were going direct to Karachi!
We arrived at Karachi and after the usual screaming and shouting associated with the place the six people who were supposed to be joining the ship in Saudi Arabia were put in a clapped out bus and taken to a hotel. The hotel was rather nice and we were to stay there for three days until the flight returned to Dharan,when the people at the hotel realised we were ships crew we were moved around the back to an annexe that wasn't fit for the dog.Fortunately this was still a time when the old colonial days still had a bit of sway.One of our group joining was a new Captain who was well experienced of Pakistan our ship was part of the P&O group and he just said 'Get me the Gray MacKenzie Man', they were the largest shipping agency on the sub continent also owned by P&O. The Hotel Manager seemed to turn pale, did as he was told, talked to the Gray MacKenzie man on the telephone and we were all put in suites on the top floor!
Expecting to stay for three days we were surprised to get woken at 0300 to be taken back to the airport but were told we were going to Dharan, we arrived at Karachi airport to chaos and looked at the departure board and the only flight going to Saudi Arabia was going to Jeddah.WE pointed this out to PIA and they agreed and said once we got there we would be able to make our own way to Dharan!
We were eventually back on the bus to the hotel and were told they didn't have any rooms until the Gray MacKenzie man was mentioned and as if by magic we were back in our suites.
The young and beautiful Mrs1DC's only comment 'Is it always like this?'
So I vote Karachi as my God Forsaken place and PIA as my God Forsaken airline..

[tango15]

As a former employee of PIA, I concur entirely with your observation, 1DC. I could tell a few stories about PIA, but none of them involve places I have diverted into...

[Smeagol]

Slight thread drift as I was not diverted into this location, had to pass through it ever time I entered or left the country. Pekanbaru, Indonesia. It was, probably still is a single runway airport on the edge of the jungle, though the jungle is now further away. When I travelled through it the terminal building was little more than a shed with corrugated iron roof which, given the climate fairly close to the equator, means it was extremely hot and humid inside. Returning to Indonesia from Singapore inevitably meant that every suitcase would be opened by customs looking for 'contraband' or anything else they might like to confiscate. The ruse used by us ex-pats was either to put the wife's sanitary towels in a visible place or well wrapped fresh pork recently purchased in Singers and tell the customs man "babi" or pork, that usually stopped them digging any further.
The flights were all Garuda and in those days the rule was, as long as the cockpit door is open things are OK, if it got closed it was time to worry! I was told by someone who was on a flight from Jakarta to Pekanbaru that some way short of the destination the cockpit door was suddenly closed. Worried looks all round. Aircraft land successfully at Pekanbaru taxis to the end of the runway to turn round, taxis halfway back to the turn-off taxiway to the terminal and...runs out of fuel. Maybe an apocryphal story but could be true knowing Garuda as it was then (1980's).